Beginning in an Ending
by DCFanatic4life
Summary: Completed Six years meant everything to Chris, and nothing to her, or that's how it seemed...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The real people and characters in this story do not belong to me. They belong to WWE and themselves. The story contains swearing, you've been warned.**

A/N: Another new one. I know, I know, I should work on my other stories, but I can't help myself! So this one is a little bit different. You'll see once you read it. I hope that you like it, and I hope that you review. Actually, please review it, it can be brutal if you want. I'm cool with that, just leave a review, please. :)

Oh, and a big, huge, gigantic thanks to Jodi, once again, for helping out as usual. And for having the conversation with me that inspired this story, and then hearing about me go on and on about it, and reading it over and helping with lines. She's probably sick of me thanking her, but it should be said that half of my stuff is better because she gives me ideas and stuff. So Jodi, you rock, you're always such a big help to me, and thank you for all the stuff that you do and I don't give you enough credit for. :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm sick and tired of this!"

"Then leave Chris!" Stephanie screamed at him.

"Maybe I will," he threatened.

"The door is always open for you," she said snottily. "I've never said you couldn't use it. So go ahead, go ahead and leave, see if I care!"

"I don't see why I'm being unreasonable here, I don't understand why you're mad at me," Chris told her. "I don't understand why I'm being preposterous according to you."

"I've told you before!"

"Yeah, you've told me some silly shit!" Chris yelled again. "Stephanie, goddammit, I'm sick and tired of this. I've been going over the same thing for the past four years and every time, every single time, you give me the same bullshit!"

"It's not bullshit Chris, it's what I think, okay, it's what I believe, and I'm sorry that you don't think the same things as me, but I can't help that. I can't help what I feel and how I react to things."

"We've been together for six fucking years Stephanie," Chris sighed, running his hands through his hair in an effort to calm himself down. This was an argument that they had been having for the past four years. It was one that usually ended up with them sighing and leaving it for another time. But now was that time and it seemed like it was going to result in a huge blow-out.

Chris had wanted to get married, and had wanted to get married for some time now. He loved Stephanie, he loved everything about her and wanted to spend the rest of his days with her. He knew that, but he couldn't understand why Stephanie didn't want it either. She was always coming up with some reason for why they couldn't get married, and every time it came up, she would dodge it like it was a peppering of bullets coming straight at her.

He didn't want to believe the nagging voice in his head that said she didn't love him like he loved her. He would push that stupid voice to the back of his head every single time. It just couldn't be true. After everything they had gone through, after all the things they had endured together, he just couldn't believe she hadn't loved him. But that voice, it was getting louder and louder now.

"I know how long we've been together Chris, you don't have to tell me how long we've been together," she said snidely.

"Then why is it so out of the realm of possibility for us to get married? Why is getting married such a sensitive subject!"

"Because it is!" she screamed at him. "I don't want to get married, I'm not ready!"

"Well I am! I've been ready and I've been waiting and waiting, and I've been so fucking patient, Stephanie. I've waited for you to be ready, and I've told you that I can wait, but Stephanie, I'm so sick of waiting. I want to be with you."

"I'm just…I can't Chris, why can't you give me more time?"

"I've given you time!" he told her. "We go around in circles and circles and I've been patient and I haven't pushed you farther than you wanted to be pushed, but Stephanie, I need something from you. I can't live like this anymore, knowing that I want more and you don't."

"I can't Chris…I don't know what you want from me."

He went up to her and put his hands on her shoulders, "I want you Stephanie. I want to be able to call you my wife. I want _everything_ with you. Stephanie, that's all I want."

"Just time Chris…"

"No, I can't Stephanie," he sighed. "I can't do it anymore, I'm tired. I've tried for the past four years, I've tried so hard."

"Stop trying to guilt me!" Stephanie screamed and Chris took a step back. "I know what you're doing Chris, I know what you're trying to do!"

Chris scoffed. "You know what, I can't do this anymore, I'm sorry Steph. Obviously we want different things and we're not going to agree. We keep having the same argument over and over again, and it's too much Stephanie. I can't do this anymore."

"Fine, then leave, seriously Chris, just leave," Stephanie shrugged, putting her hands on her hips. "Obviously you don't care about me, so leave."

"Oh yeah, this is all because I don't care about you," he said sarcastically. "That makes a load of sense there Stephanie. But I'm gone, this relationship is not going anywhere. Why I'm hanging on, I have no idea. We both want different things and we're never going to agree."

"No, we're not," she told him, putting up her walls. She was getting defensive now.

He didn't want to leave her, but obviously they were not going to come to any sort of resolution. He couldn't get her to agree and maybe this relationship would never be what he wanted it to be. He had been so patient with her, but six years later, he needed more. He needed to know that she would be his, and she couldn't give him that. He blinked back tears as he gazed at her.

"Fine, if that's it, fine, I can't do anymore," Chris said. "I love you Stephanie, but I can't deal with this anymore. We're through."

She looked down and nodded, "Okay…"

"That's it? Okay?"

"Well what else can I say? Just leave Chris, obviously we're not at the same point anymore, if we ever were, and we're just going to keep fighting and that'll lead to resenting each other, and that's not cool at all. So whatever, leave, go, I don't care."

"So now you don't even care, wonderful," he said coldly. "I'm going to go pack. I hope that's okay with you."

She turned away and didn't answer him. He stared at her back for a moment, her long, brown hair cascading over her back, her smooth back that he loved to caress when they fell asleep. The curve of her hips that he'd grab and use to pull her against his body, he loved it all. He was almost rooted to his spot because he didn't really want to leave, but it was all going to hell, and he couldn't stand it anymore.

He finally turned to go upstairs and into the room he had shared with Stephanie for the past five years. They had bought this house together, decorated it together and had spent all their non-traveling moments here. It was their house, truly and completely, and to be leaving it was just hitting him really hard at the moment.

He grabbed his largest suitcase and threw it on their bed, with its flowery bedspread, which Stephanie had insisted on. They usually switched off with his more manly plaid one and he chuckled to himself, but it was a hollow sound. He started opening his drawers and grabbing stuff blindly before stuffing it into his suitcase, not caring that he had no organization. He just needed to get out of here before he broke down again. He couldn't keep giving in to her because it was tearing him up inside.

It tore him apart to think that Stephanie might not care about him in the way he needed her to care. They had been together for so long and she had been by his side, but it wasn't what he needed. He needed to be with her completely because he didn't want to lose her. And in the greatest irony, he needed to get away from her in order to save himself. He couldn't live with a woman who didn't need him, and Stephanie probably didn't need him.

He finished up with his things and closed the suitcase, zipping it up. He placed his hands on top of it for a moment, collecting himself as he looked around the room. There were pictures everywhere, especially in Stephanie's vanity. She had stuck various pictures into the mirror until you could barely see yourself in the glass. He went over and plucked one of them from it, a picture from their first year together, when everything seemed simple. They were smiling for the camera and leaning back against the ropes of the ring. He stuck it into a pocket of his suitcase and then sighed at what he'd have to do next.

He left the room and trekked down the hallway to a door with a hockey-themed doorknob. He turned the knob gently and peeked into the room that was lit by a hockey player nightlight. He pushed it open and went to go sit on the small hockey bed that Stephanie had insisted they buy because he was all about hockey. He stared down at the small form engulfed by the big bed.

He knew this was going to be hard. He didn't want to have to leave his little boy, but it wasn't fair for anyone if he stayed in an unhappy relationship. His four-year old son would surely pick up on the tension and Chris never wanted his son to find out anything that could make him upset. He reached out to tousle the young boy's hair, which caused him to give a little snort as he woke up, his eyes opening slowly.

"Hey there Finn," Chris said softly.

"Daddy?" Finnegan asked sleepily. Chris knew he was tired and waking up his son wasn't a great idea, but he needed to say goodbye. He couldn't have Finnegan waking up the next morning wondering where he was.

He smiled down at the young boy. He looked completely like his mother, the same hair, the same mouth, chin, ears, smile. The only thing that distinguished him as Finnegan's father was the young boy's eyes. He had his father's blue eyes, but just a hint of the gray that his mother had. Finnegan was the love of his life and a pretty big surprise that they had found out about shortly after their first-year anniversary.

"Yeah, it's me, who else would it be?" Chris joked softly.

"Daddy, I was sleeping," the little boy said, one eye squeezed shut as the other peered at his father.

"I know kiddo, but Daddy has to leave soon and I couldn't do it without saying goodbye to you," Chris told him.

"Where are you going Daddy? Do I have to pack?" Finnegan asked, sounding like Stephanie whenever an emergency arose. Chris didn't know many four-year olds who could pack in a moment's notice like Finnegan could.

"No, you don't have to pack. It's just me that's going, Mommy's downstairs. I just have to leave tonight."

"When are you coming home?" he asked.

"I don't know," Chris said. "I might not be home for a long time. But that doesn't mean that we aren't going to see each other or anything. Mommy and I just have to figure some things out and once we do that, everything will be back to normal."

Finnegan yawned and closed his eyes, "Daddy, don't go, stay…" He didn't want to have to deal with saying goodbye right now. He was too tired to deal with that.

"I can't stay kiddo. But you go back to sleep okay, and Mommy will be here to take care of you, okay Finn?"

"Okay Daddy," Finnegan said sleepily, already half-way to dream land. He held Finn's hand as the little boy gripped his father's hand in his. He waited until Finnegan fell back asleep, his hand still encased in his father's tightly. Even in his sleep the boy had a strong grip. Chris rubbed his thumb over Finnegan's, letting the little boy know that Daddy was still there, that when he fell asleep, Daddy would be watching over him. At least for now.

When it came time for him to pull away, Chris didn't know if he could do it. He didn't know if he could pull away from his son. Finnegan was the most important, hell, at some points he was the only important thing in Chris's life. He lived and breathed for this little boy. Knowing that he was going to get to see his son and play with him made every day worth getting up for. He gently tried to pull his hand away, but the little boy whined in his slumber and pulled Chris's hand back. Chris looked towards the ceiling, closing his eyes and letting his breath out slowly. He tried again, and this time he let his hand go free.

He rubbed his mouth and then his eyes as he gazed at his little boy. He pulled the covers a little tighter around his son and knelt next to the bed, watching his little boy sleep. His soft breathing was a comfort to Chris. He would make it up to Finnegan, he would somehow make it up to him.

Finnegan had been a blessing for him and Stephanie. It had cemented their relationship in a way that he never would've guessed. He had been proposing marriage since Finnegan was born, but Stephanie never gave in and this was the last time he would ask. He loved the little family that they were and as he leaned forward to kiss his son's head, he only hoped that things would work out. He needed them to work out, for his sake, for her sake, for their child's sake. But maybe it was all just too late.

"Bye kiddo," Chris whispered, giving his son one last kiss before getting up. He left the room and closed the door gently behind him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, holding in his emotions. One tear slipped by him though as he leaned back against his son's door. He bit his lip to keep the rest of the tears from falling though. What was once something he could do was now something he didn't think he could. He couldn't leave his son, but he couldn't be with Stephanie and hurt his son further.

He went back and got his suitcase and lugged it downstairs. Stephanie was sitting in the kitchen, staring out into space and he walked in there. "I'm leaving now Stephanie."

"Did you say goodbye to Finny?" Stephanie said, using her nickname for their son, one she had been using since he was born because it reminded her of her favorite book, A Separate Peace.

"Yeah, I said goodbye. Once I get set up, I'll give you a call and we can work out some sort of schedule with him."

"Okay," she said emotionlessly and he sighed, deciding to go for it one more time.

"Stephanie, seriously, I just want to--" She held her hand up.

"Just go Chris, like you said, we're on separate planes here. We can't agree."

"But--"

He stopped. There was nothing he could do.

Six years, washed away to nothing…


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews, they are always appreciated. I know that most of you thought Stephanie was crazy, but well, I hope to shed a little light on it. I hope you enjoy what you read as I'm really excited about this story, as some of you know. ;)

Please leave another review after you've hopefully enjoyed the chapter, and as always, italics are flashbacks. :)

-------------------------------------------------

"_Yes, so we can confirm that you're pregnant. You're about seven weeks along, we should schedule a full examination for you in a couple of weeks."_

_Stephanie smiled. "Thank you. It's a relief to get that confirmation."_

"_Okay, I'm always happy to inform people."_

"_Yeah, thanks."_

_Stephanie stood up and shook her doctor's hand and walked out of the room with a smile on her face. She smiled her way to the receptionist to make her next appointment and she smiled her way down to the lobby and out to her car and then she smiled as she closed the door. That's where her smile faded and her tears began._

_She put both her hands on top of the steering wheel and leaned her head on them as she cried. She had been suspecting she was pregnant for the past few weeks, ever since she was late, but she had hesitated going to the doctor because she didn't want it to be true. She didn't want to be pregnant. Not now, someday yes, but not now. She and Chris had only been together for a little over a year, and they weren't even living in the same state, let alone the same house. They spent their weekends apart and their weeks together at work._

_She loved Chris, and he loved her, and she knew that. But a child was a wrench into the plan. How was it even going to work? They weren't married, they weren't living together. Their relationship was semi-serious. They didn't see other people, but it wasn't like they were tied down together. Well, they were tied down together now. She took one of her hands and rested it against her abdomen, knowing now for sure that there was a child in there, that _her_ child was in there._

_Chris was going to do the right thing, she knew this already. He was probably going to propose and want to get married and everything and she knew it was all going to be because of the little boy or girl that she was carrying inside of her. She was needlessly going to tie him down. Unless she didn't tell him and kept it to herself. Then he wouldn't have to feel tied down. But she wasn't going to do that; she couldn't not tell him about his own child, how cruel and heartless would that be?_

_She composed herself and wiped her eyes before driving back home. She wanted to collapse on the couch with a quart of ice cream and just eat her way into oblivion. She now had that "eating for two" excuse. When she got through the door though, she just went to her couch and flopped down on it as she stared at the ceiling. The phone rang about twenty minutes later and she reached behind her blindly where she could hear the phone ringing._

"_Hello?"_

"_Hey there you."_

"_Chris," she said, smiling slightly, but also with a slight tremor in her voice._

"_It is me. I was just thinking about you, wondering how you were spending your weekend and if you missed me as much as I miss you."_

"_No, definitely less," she told him coyly._

"_Ouch, now that hurts," Chris said to her, pretending to be hurt. "So what'd you do today, or what are you doing with the rest of today? And don't leave out details, I'm all about the details."_

"_I just worked all day," she lied. Now was not the time to tell him the truth, although it would probably be easier to do it over the phone. Or maybe not do it at all. Maybe she should run away and raise this child by herself, she certainly had the means and she didn't want to tie him down or drive him away. Chris was the best thing that could've happened to her. He made her life fun._

"_Steph, Steph, Steph, how many times do I have to tell you to live a little? Working all weekend, that's just boring. Do you need me to come up there and inject a little Vitamin C in your life?" he asked playfully._

"_No!" Stephanie said forcefully, but then corrected herself lest he get suspicious. "No Chris, I'm good…Chris?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_What do you think about the future?"_

"_Well, it's…the future…unpredictable…"_

"_I mean our future?" she asked, trying not to just come out and say that they were going to be linked together for the rest of their lives, for better or for worse._

"_I see us having fun, why? I mean, you know, I can see being with you. But who knows right, that's why you live in the present because you never know. Hell, we could break up tomorrow or a year from now. Relationships are hard you know. You have to keep an open mind and know that sometimes, things don't work out. Especially if you don't have any attachments."_

"Mommy?"

Stephanie looked up from playing with the ends of her hair. She had zoned out for a moment while working on something as Finnegan watched her. He was sitting cross-legged on top of the desk she had been given for the evening. She was going over some of the test scripts given to her by her writers to see which ones were feasible and which ones weren't.

"Yes Finny?"

"I'm bored," he told her, heaving a great, big sigh.

"You don't like watching me work?"

He laughed and shook his head. "It's not fun Mommy because you don't let me help."

"Well, I don't think that my employees would appreciate a little boy being better at their work than they are," Stephanie said, grabbing him off the desk and tickling him as he squirmed in her arms, laughing and trying to push her away.

"Stop, Mommy, stop!" Finnegan yelled as he tried to breathe.

Stephanie kissed the top of his head and held him to her. "Did you want to go read a book or color or something because you can always go do that."

"But I don't want to read," he whined.

"Why not? You love it," she told him, and it was indeed his favorite activity outside of hockey, which he loved to the very hilt of loving something. In fact, he was wearing his vintage Winnipeg Jets jersey right this second. It was worn and faded from him wearing it all the time, but Stephanie indulged him on this point. She let him dress himself for the most part, not wanting to inhibit him.

"I want to go see Daddy," Finnegan said softly. "Can I go see him?"

Stephanie sighed. Chris was the one subject she did not want to think about. She was lucky that for the most part that Finnegan looked like her because she didn't think she could bear looking at Chris in their son. He had left three days ago and she hadn't spoken to him since. Well, that wasn't true. He had called to talk to their son and they had the following exchange every time:

"Hello?"

"Steph, it's Chris, can I talk to Finn?"

"Okay."

And that was it. That was all for them over the past three days. Six years of being together and that's what they were reduced to, but it wasn't her fault. Chris kept pressuring her and pressuring her and she couldn't take it all. She wasn't at the point where she wanted to get married because the fear was still there, and it was always going to be there. If they weren't married, then the falling out they would eventually have wouldn't seem so intense. Except the falling out had been intense.

Yet, she wasn't going to cry over it, not like she had cried when she found out she was pregnant, or when she cried the first time she had turned down Chris's proposal. It had been on a whim. He had just said it casually, like it was expected of them since she was having his baby. She didn't want it just because of their child. She didn't want to turn Finnegan into a reason rather than a person. She never wanted to do that because she loved her son too much to use him as a way of saying yes.

"Do you really want to go see Daddy?" Stephanie asked, but she already knew the answer. She knew that Finnegan hadn't seen Chris for three days and that was three days too long.

"Yes…please," he added on, remembering that his mother was all about asking please and saying thank you. He wanted to please her. Whenever he made her happy, she would give him a big hug that he loved.

"Okay, we can do that," Stephanie told him, not wanting to disappoint him. She had already had to explain that Daddy couldn't come over to the house and she didn't want to explain to him why he couldn't go see his father.

"Yes!" Finnegan yelled as he hopped off of Stephanie's lap. He raced to the door and reached up to open it as Stephanie laughed and stood up. Finnegan wasn't a boisterous child by any means, in fact he was a lot more thoughtful than you'd think a child of hers and Chris's would be, but he did have his moments. He was a lot more well-adjusted than either Chris or she was, and oftentimes, she and Chris had joked that Finnegan was really the adult who took care of them.

He did take care of them though. They grew up when they had him, and they grew together when they had him. Finnegan was the one thing that always kept them from doing something stupid or crazy. Both of them wanted one thing in their life, and this they could always agree on, they wanted Finnegan to be the happiest kid in the world. Not because he was spoiled, and not because they could provide him everything and anything he wanted, but to just be happy being a kid.

She followed him to the door and through it as he went down the hallway, looking up at various doors. He looked back at her in question, "Mommy, do you know where Daddy's door is?"

"I can't say that I do Finny," she told him. Finnegan frowned and continued looking through all the doors before he saw one with his Daddy's name on it. "Chris Jericho, Mommy! This is Daddy's door!"

He was so excited and it broke her heart. She would just have to try to remain civil with Chris for their son's sake. She walked up to the door and knocked on it, looking down at her little boy who was understandably bouncing on his feet. No answer came from the door, and Stephanie frowned as she made a funny face to Finnegan. She knocked again and again there was no answer.

"Hmm…do you think Daddy is here?" Finnegan shook his head vigorously. "Yeah, me neither, but let's check first okay?"

"Okay," Finnegan nodded seriously, an expression that matched her own serious face. Stephanie turned the knob and stuck her head in the room, not caring if Chris was changing. After being together with him for six years, there wasn't much left to hide. She saw his things sitting on the ground, but no Chris in sight.

"I don't think he's here Finny," Stephanie said regretfully and Finny frowned.

"Where could he be?" Finnegan asked and Stephanie had to laugh at that. He was easily frustrated, which was something he did pick up from both his parents, who were always quick to get frustrated with people.

"I don't know, do you think Mommy's psychic?" she joked and Finnegan nodded and hugged her leg. She wouldn't say that he was a Mama's boy, because he equally liked Chris, but he was definitely a parent's boy if that made sense. "Do you want to wait for Daddy here or go look for him?"

"Look for him," he mumbled against her leg.

"You're going to have to let go of me for me to do that," she responded.

"Okay," he said, letting go of her reluctantly, but seeking out her hand to hold in his. She gave it a squeeze as they wandered off in search of Chris. Stephanie smiled to people as they walked, Finnegan waving to everyone and calling them by their names.

They walked into catering and Stephanie spotted Chris immediately, though Finnegan, with his lower field of vision had a hard time spotting him through the sea of people around. He was sitting at a table alone, chin in hand and he was staring off into space. It had been three days since she had seen him and while that wasn't even close to the longest she had been away from him, it was different now because he wasn't hers anymore, and that stung a little, but she pushed it back.

"Hey, look who's over there," Stephanie whispered, as she leaned down to Finnegan's level and pointed to Chris. She watched as Finnegan's eyes lit up and he looked to his Mommy in delight.

"It's Daddy," he said in an excited whisper.

"Come on, let's go," she told him as they walked together over to where Chris was sitting oblivious to their presence.

"Daddy," Finnegan said, grabbing him around the waist.

"Huh?" Chris said, startled by the sudden intrusion into his thoughts. He looked down to see a little person clinging to him. "Finn!"

"Hi Daddy," Finnegan said brightly. "We were looking all over the place for you and you weren't anywhere."

"If I had known you were looking, I would've come found you instead," Chris said, lifting the boy easily onto the table and sitting him in front of him. "Have you been good?"

Finnegan nodded and looked to Stephanie for confirmation and she nodded. Chris looked at her and she looked away quickly, not making eye contact with him. Chris sighed at this. He wanted so much to stand up and give her a proper hello, complete with mind-blowing kiss. But she wasn't his to kiss anymore, and the thought ripped at his insides. But he masked the disappointment for Finnegan's sake.

"If you want Finny, you can spend the night with Daddy, if that's okay with Daddy?'

"Why isn't Daddy staying with us like he always does?" Finnegan asked, looking between his parents.

Stephanie grabbed her right arm with her left and hand and rubbed it up and down for a moment, not knowing how to answer that. She looked to Chris, and he was looking down at the ground. She blinked a little before pulling up a chair next to Chris, but being careful not to be too close to him. Finnegan looked between his parents, not understanding why they didn't look happy at all.

"Finny, Daddy and I have to explain something to you, so please listen okay?"

"Okay," he said in a small voice and with a boyish smile.

"Finn, Mommy and I…we need time apart," Chris said delicately.

"But Daddy, you were gone forever and ever, and now you can come back home," Finnegan said. "Because you already left home, Mommy said, so you can come back, because you don't have business right?"

"No, I don't, but I can't come home."

"But Daddy, you live there."

"Daddy doesn't live there anymore Finny. It's like this sweetie, Mommy and Daddy aren't married like your other friend's parents, remember how we explained that to you?" Stephanie asked, while Chris bit his tongue at the mention of marriage.

"You and Daddy are boyfriend and girlfriend," Finnegan said, which is just what Chris and Stephanie had told him when he had said during talking time at school they were talking about Mommies and Daddies and most of his friends had married Mommies and Daddies.

"Yes, we were boyfriend and girlfriend," Chris agreed, trying not to sound bitter.

"But sometimes, when people are boyfriend and girlfriend, they decide that they can't be together, like sometimes married Mommies and Daddies can't be together anymore, they call that divorced."

"Richard's parents are that!" Finnegan exclaimed.

"Like that, except when boyfriends and girlfriends aren't together anymore, they call that breaking up. And Daddy and I decided that we were going to break up."

"Why?" he asked innocently.

"It's a lot of things Finny, but Mommy and Daddy decided that we needed to not be together anymore. It's not your fault or anything, it's our fault. But Daddy isn't going to be living with us anymore, and Daddy is going to live somewhere else."

"I don't like this Mommy," Finnegan said, scrunching up his face. "Daddy should come home."

"Finny, Daddy can't, okay."

"Okay," he said, pouting a little bit and this, _this_, made Stephanie want to cry. Chris patted Finnegan on the knees, causing the little boy to look up.

"We're still gonna have fun though Finn, I promise," Chris said, wanting to wipe that sad face off of his son's face immediately. He couldn't bear it. It didn't need to be like this, it never needed to be like this. If Stephanie had just…he didn't want to think about that any longer. He just wanted to focus on his son. "So if Mommy says its okay, we can have a sleepover tonight."

"Its okay," she nodded, kissing Finnegan on the cheek. "I'm going to get back to work, are you going to be okay here Finny?"

"Yes Mommy," he said politely. She gave him another kiss and walked away, leaving Chris and Finnegan alone. "Daddy, are you sure you can't come home?"

"I'm sure kiddo," Chris said. "I want to, believe me, but Mommy and I just don't agree on some things."

Finnegan sighed dramatically, sounding like Stephanie when she wanted attention. "You can talk to her and make it better. When Mommy gets mad at me, she talks to me and makes it better."

"I've tried talking to Mommy about this Finn, but we just aren't going to agree. I'm sorry kiddo, I really am. I love Mommy more than you love candy," he said, to which Finnegan's eyes got wide, "but Mommy just can't see that right now."

"Mommy's that word that Grandpa Vince uses all the time," Finnegan giggled.

"Stubborn?"

"Uh huh," Finnegan nodded. Chris nodded too. If anything, Stephanie was the most stubborn person on the planet. All he wanted was her, and she couldn't give him that.

Yeah, he would call her stubborn alright.


	3. Chapter 3

_One year, that's all they had really. A little more than a year if you were getting technical, but who needed technicalities? They hadn't even made this a really serious relationship and then this bombshell dropped right on her head. She had been trying to think of a way to tell Chris, a way to just let him know that this was going to happen. She had not, and would not ever consider an abortion, so if Chris chose to leave her then she would raise their child alone. She steeled herself for that._

_Or maybe she just shouldn't tell him. She didn't want to tie him down. She could break up with him now and then she could go away for nine months, or forever, whichever worked. Chris never had to know about this baby. He could go on living his life and not be tied down by her and their child. She didn't want to tie him down. _

_But that wasn't fair. She couldn't keep his child from him. If he wanted to be a part of his child's life, she couldn't deny him that chance or that right. He was this baby's father and he deserved the chance to be this baby's father. There was always the possibility though that he would run away, and it was a scary one, just because she loved Chris and she didn't want to lose him this way._

_She was walking, wandering really, down the hallways of the arena. She had yet to see him since she had gotten here and she almost dreaded it. She thought crazy thoughts, like he'd be able to tell she was pregnant just by looking at her, but she wasn't showing at all. All she had to show for it was some mild morning sickness, and she had covered that up pretty well to where Chris suspected nothing. She turned the corner and saw him talking with Edge. She gasped softly and pressed herself against the wall. She wasn't ready to talk to him yet._

"_So where's Stephanie?" Edge asked._

"_Around I'm sure," Chris said. "We haven't met up yet. She called earlier and said she'd be around sometime, I'm not worried."_

"_You two are crazy," Edge chuckled. "I mean, you've been together for a year and you still sound like you're just dating her casually."_

"_We're having fun," Chris informed him. "Being with Stephanie is fun."_

"_But do you guys have a future, it'd suck if you were just leading her along man."_

"_I'm not leading her along, she knows what's in this relationship. We live for the present man, the future is far off," Chris told him. "I mean, who knows what's going to happen?"_

"_So you've been seeing this broad for over a year and you can't even see yourself marrying her or anything? Then why be with her in the first place, unless she's a really good lay."_

"_Well, for starters, she is," Chris winked and laughed. "Secondly, no, marriage has never come up. I don't know, I guess I don't think of the future when I'm with Stephanie."_

_Stephanie was stunned by this confession. He didn't think they even had a future together? That stung her right in the heart as she placed her hand over her abdomen again. She should've known this. She loved Chris, and he loved her, but they never talked future. Surely he would break up with her soon and maybe she should keep the news of the baby a secret for now. Just for a little while longer._

"So tell me…what's this rumor I keep hearing?"

Stephanie looked up at Shane and raised her eyebrow. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You haven't heard the whispers?" Shane asked as he took a seat across from his sister. "What, have you been holed up in here all night? Which seems unlikely because you don't have Finn with you, and I'm pretty sure you showed up with him."

"Nah, I left him to fend for himself, I figured four years old was completely old enough to stay home alone," Stephanie said sarcastically.

"Okay, so now that that's cleared up, what about these rumors I keep hearing?"

"I don't know what rumors you're talking about!" Stephanie said, laying her hands flat on the desk. "Care to enlighten me, because you're not going to make a whole lot of sense to me if you don't tell me."

"All I keep hearing is about you and Chris breaking up, now I know that can't be true. You guys have been together for what, five or six years, no, six because Finn is four and you were together for two years when he was born. Six years, that's a long time, so come on, debunk the rumors now so I can spread that around."

"It's true," Stephanie said flatly, looking back down at her sheet of paper.

"Okay, time to stop joking now Stephanie," Shane said seriously, staring at his sister.

"It's true Shane, what more do you want me to tell you?" she snapped, not looking up at him still. "Chris and I broke up over the weekend. He moved out. He packed his things and he left, and until today I hadn't seen him for three days. He called to talk to Finny and that was it."

Shane's jaw dropped slowly. "You broke up?"

"Yes!" she said angrily. "We. Broke. Up."

"I don't get this. How could the two of you break up? You've been together for six years. Six years Stephanie, that's longer than most of the people around here have been married and you broke up. You two have been together since 2001. You guys own a house, and most importantly, you guys have a child together."

"Look Shane, I know you buy into the whole fairytale thing, but it happened, okay, that's it. It just happened and we're not together, and that's all there is to it."

"So after six years, that's all? You're just saying it happened and you're not even unhappy about it?" Shane asked. "I mean, you're breaking up your family, your son is used to having both his parents around and suddenly, you're making it difficult. Did Chris do something to you? Did he hit you or something, and I know Chris would never hit you, so it must be something fixable."

"He wants to get married, I don't, end of subject."

Shane shook his head, not understanding. "The man wants to marry you, you've been together for six years, you have a four-year old son and you've been living together for five years, and you don't want to get married?"

"It's complicated Shane."

"It's ridiculous Stephanie."

"Don't pretend to be inside my head!" Stephanie told him. "I'm not in the mood right now. Look, Chris left, that's all there is to it. I knew it would happen eventually, and it did. So drop it. He has Finny, and Finny will be fine. He's a smart kid, he understands that things happen."

"He's four Steph, he's not worldly."

"Look, I wanted time, and Chris couldn't give that to me, and I couldn't give him what he wants. So we ended it. I didn't want to, he didn't want to, but it is what it is, so drop it, okay, because I'm sick of thinking about it."

Shane studied his sister for a moment. She didn't look sad or upset, but he knew her well enough to know that she was hiding behind the wall she set up for herself. Stephanie steeled her nerves a lot of the time when she should've let herself feel. But then, maybe it was easier because she still had Finnegan's love. But then shouldn't it be harder because she was probably breaking Finnegan's heart?

"So you break up over it?"

"It's a fight that's been brewing since I found out I was pregnant," she said dully, looking up at him. "It's been five years in the making, and it all came to a head this weekend. Chris and I aren't going to see eye to eye any time soon and if we can't compromise, we're just going to let it stew and hate each other. I don't want hate Chris, he's the father of my son, and no matter happens, Chris will always be the father to my son, and I don't want Finny to have parents who hate each other."

"Yet you don't mind him having parents who are breaking up?" Shane pointed out.

"Married parents get divorced all the time Shane, look around, it's here in the business, divorce is prevalent. Chris and I just never took that route."

"Because you never let yourself, that's _why_ you broke up."

"It would've happened eventually," Stephanie said, thinking about the words she had heard so long ago, the ones that still rang in her mind. She would never forget the feeling in the pit of her stomach when Chris had said he didn't think of a future with her, the implication being that he saw no future with her. She oftentimes wondered where she would be had she not gotten pregnant. Alone maybe, married to someone else with kids, she didn't know, but life had dealt her this hand and so she had to live with it.

"You don't know that."

"You'd be surprised at what I know," Stephanie told him, staring him straight in the eye. Then she broke the gaze and went back to her work. "Unless you want Dad to fire me, you might want to leave."

"This isn't over Stephanie."

"Nothing ever is with you," she said, though there was joking in her voice. Shane circumvented the desk and kissed his sister's head, giving it a pat before leaving her there alone. He walked down the hallway to catering, where he had seen Chris earlier, and hoped that he was still there.

He was, and looked to be playing Go Fish with Finnegan. Shane lauded his luck, and watched them for a minute as Chris got four cards and put them down, as Finnegan frowned at him. Chris just stuck his tongue out at his son and Finnegan hit him in the arm playfully, something Stephanie would do for sure. Shane sauntered over there and plopped himself down next to Finnegan.

"Hi Uncle Shane," Finnegan said as his eyes narrowed and his lips pursed. "Do you have any sevens?"

"Go Fish," Chris said, looking to Shane with a nod.

"Do you love my sister?" Shane asked bluntly.

"What?" Chris asked, shocked and momentarily forgetting that he was playing with his son. He stared at Shane, who was looking at him intently.

"You heard me, do you love my sister?"

"What does this have to do with anything?" he sighed.

"Daddy, it's your turn," Finnegan reminded him, not caring about what his uncle was talking about. He just wanted to play his game with his daddy.

"Sorry Finn, do you have any Jacks?"

"Do they have the J's on them?" Finnegan asked.

"Yeah, those are the Jacks," Chris reminded him.

"Daddy!" Finnegan said angrily as he took two cards from his hand and handed them over to Chris, who grinned and cackled, which made Finnegan frown even more.

"Your turn," Chris said smugly, which only made Finnegan angrier, which made him look more like Stephanie, which comforted Chris a little. As long as he had Finnegan, the last six years did indeed happen and they weren't a figment of his imagination. Finnegan was living proof that he and Stephanie had been together.

"Chris, loving my sister has everything to do with everything," Shane said as he interrupted again.

"What do you want me to say Shane?" Chris asked.

"I just want to know why you two are broken up, it makes no sense to me."

"Look…" Chris paused, "Hey Finn, do you want to go get a water?"

"No," Finnegan said and Chris laughed.

"Do you want to get me a water?"

"Not really," Finnegan said. "I wanna play."

"Okay, well, I need to talk to Uncle Shane for a second, and…okay, you know what, you want to listen to some of your music?" Chris asked.

"What music?" Finnegan asked and Chris reminded himself that he was dealing with a four year old, not an adult. And not just any four year old either, but Stephanie's four year old son, which meant that he could be just like his mother sometimes. Not that he didn't love that a little bit.

"The ones you have on my iPod, come here," Chris said, grabbing his iPod and flipping through it until he got to Finnegan's playlist, which consisted of kiddie songs and well, Chris's own music since Chris was vain and well, Finnegan liked it.

"Daddy, Daddy, can I listen to the hockey song!" Finnegan asked excitedly as he saw the iPod, forgetting about the game of Go Fish. But he was a four year old, really, how long are their attention spans?

"Finn, remember what I told you, that's called 'O, Canada,' it's the national anthem of Canada, which is why they play it during all the hockey games we go to with Grandpa when we go to Canada," Chris reminded him.

"I know," Finnegan said, exasperated, and not planning on changing what he called it any time soon.

Chris put the headphones on Finnegan and adjusted them to fit his smaller head. He turned the volume down lower so as not to blast his son's eardrums and then flipped through the playlist to get to "O, Canada." When Finnegan was clearly occupied and content with his music, Chris turned to Shane.

"Okay, so what's up with you Shane?" Chris said, turning his full attention to his…well, no, not brother-in-law since he never married Stephanie, but Shane might as well have been his brother-in-law, more like best friend though, given the amount of interaction they had had over the years he had been with Stephanie.

"I'm just a little confused here. Do you love my sister?"

"It doesn't matter, we're broken up," Chris answered bitterly.

"So you don't love her then?"

"I love her okay, I love her Shane, is that what you want to hear?"

"And do you mean it?"

"What do you mean, do I mean it?" Chris scoffed. "Of course I mean it. Shane, I love Stephanie okay, I love her like you wouldn't believe. But sometimes, that's just not enough and I had to get out of that house."

"I don't get it."

"I want to marry her, I've tried, and I've waited, and I can't do it. It's driving me insane man. And if I can't find what I'm looking for with Stephanie after six years, then maybe it's just time to cut my losses and move on," Chris told him.

"She gave you a son, man."

"Wow, really? I didn't know this!" Chris said sarcastically. "Look, I can't stay with her if I want more out of this relationship than she does. It's just not going to work that way. Don't get me wrong on this Shane, I love Stephanie, and I would do anything for her. I have stuck with her for six years, and you know your sister, that's not easy. But if I want to work it out with her, I need more from her, and I don't think that's ever going to happen. So I can't stick around this time."

"She loves you too, you know."

"I know that, I know she loves me," Chris replied, then took a deep sigh and ran a hand over his face. "I just don't know if she loves me the same way I love her. And having a kid together doesn't make it all equal. Finnegan is a reason I love Stephanie, sure, but Finn is his own person, not attached to Stephanie, and we both love Finn to death, but that's not loving each other."

"You guys have just been together so long, I don't get this, I can't wrap my mind around it."

"Neither can I, but if I stayed with her Shane, if I let this go again, then it'd be too much. I'd love to have her be my wife, I'd love to make her Stephanie Irvine, but she just doesn't want it. She might never want it."

"Yeah, okay, I guess you're right," Shane said, standing up and tousling Finnegan's hair a little. "I'm sorry it had to come to this."

"I'm sorry too," Chris agreed.

Shane walked away, unsatisfied by either of their opinions and explanations. It all just sounded like malarkey to him. Chris had some seriously valid points that made him think this was mostly on Stephanie's end of the spectrum. He was going to get to the bottom of this, and he was going to fix this. He wanted to do this for Finnegan, who deserved better. He was going to make things better.

Because that's just who Shane was.


	4. Chapter 4

"_That's a leg, and that's arm right there, and that's his head of course."_

"_Chris, you've showed that to me five times already."_

"_Sorry," Chris chuckled as he looked at Amy. "I can't help it, I'm excited. I mean, this is my son. _This_ is my son!"_

"_Crazy, I know," Amy laughed. "You've only been showing everyone your son, and we get it. We get that you're having a son but that doesn't mean that you're allowed to go off the deep end."_

"_I'm not going off the deep end," Chris said defensively. "You should've seen him in there Ames, he was kicking and moving around like he was on a soccer field or something. The doctor said he was going to be an active little guy. A little boy, I'm still just stoked about that one."_

"_So if it had been a girl you would've renounced her and said you weren't the father?" _

"_Well…no, if she had been a little girl, she'd be a Daddy's Girl all the way, but we're getting a boy, he's going to be fun, Ames. I can't wait to meet him and hold him and do all those dad things with him."_

"_How's Steph doing?" Amy asked curiously._

"_She's excited," Chris said with a smile. "She has got like fifty different paint samples taped up on the walls of the nursery in our house, which we will invite everyone to once we get everything moved in…well, once I get everything moved in, Stephanie can't lift most of the stuff."_

"_Oh yeah, this house I keep hearing so much about. I can't believe you finally have a house. I bet it's a lot different than that bachelor pad you used to have. Actually, I can't believe that you're finally moving in with Stephanie, it only took you a year to get off your ass."_

"_Well, before I knew she was pregnant, you know, we didn't really have a reason to move in, you know," he told her. "But now that we have a kid on the way, it just makes more sense. I want to be around my kid all the time, not some bullshit part-time dad kind of thing. I don't want visits and weekends, although Stephanie and I are still together, but I want to be there every day."_

"_I'm sure she appreciates that."_

"_Yeah, I think she does…I hope she does," Chris chuckled, looking down again at the sonogram. "You know, Ames, before I found out she was pregnant, it was kind of like I was wandering you know. But now things feel really right. He feels really right, and so does all of this with Stephanie."_

"_So you're finally at the point where you admit this is a serious relationship."_

_Chris waved the sonogram in her face, "This is about as serious as you can get. Having a kid is just about as serious, except marriage of course."_

"_Speaking of…"_

"_Don't even start it Ames," Chris told her with a laugh._

"_Come on, you'll have a baby with her, but you won't marry her."_

"_It's not that," he told her, serious this time._

"_Then what is it?"_

"_The reason I'm going to propose to Stephanie, somewhere down the line," he added. "Well, it's going to be because I want her to marry me, not because I have to marry her."_

"Yes, you have to go to Uncle Shane's."

"But I want to go see Daddy too," Finnegan said, dangling his legs over the stool as he sat at the bar in their kitchen. He spooned some more cereal into his mouth as he watched Stephanie go around and collect things to put in the sink.

"I know you do, which is why Daddy's picking you up from Uncle Shane's and you can spend the night with him," Stephanie said. Finnegan didn't smile at this and Stephanie put the dishes in the sink as she went over to where Finnegan was sitting and leaned on the counter to look at him. "Okay Finny, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Finnegan said.

"I know something's wrong Finny," Stephanie said, leaning a little closer to her son. "You know you want to tell me."

"Nothing," Finnegan said, still frowning.

"Finnegan Aaron Irvine, I know that you're hiding something," Stephanie said playfully, nudging him in the shoulder as she raised an eyebrow. "Since when can't you tell me what's wrong? Are you growing up to be such a big boy you can't tell me anything?"

"I want Daddy to come home," Finnegan said softly, so softly Stephanie had to strain her ears to hear it. She sighed heavily and picked Finnegan off of the seat and held her against her hip. This was getting to be something that she wouldn't be able to do soon because he was getting so big.

Finnegan rested his head against Stephanie's shoulder and wrapped his arms around her neck, holding on tightly. Stephanie closed her eyes and kissed his forehead as he just snuggled in more tightly. His legs went around her waist as he tried to get closer to her because he wanted to be close to her. He was sad and his sadness was palpitating and reaching her. She hummed a little to calm him down and try to cheer him up.

Stephanie began to whisper in his ear:

"A boy named Finn sailed the ocean blue

In a little sailboat, built for two.

The fishies were swimming up and down.

And my little Finny never wore a frown.

He never cried, he could only smile,

While his mommy loved him all the while.

She gave him hugs, and kisses too.

And said, "Whatever shall we do?"

And so they sailed the ocean blue,

In a little sailboat built for two."

Stephanie smiled wistfully as she thought about when that poem had been written. She and Chris had been lying down with Finnegan between them. He had been about a year old at the time, and Chris found himself constantly inspired by the little boy. The words had just flowed from his mouth as Stephanie kept softly brushing back Finnegan's hair. And as Chris finished his poem, Finnegan had smiled around his bottle. Ever since then, whenever Finnegan was sad after getting hurt or falling down, they would recite the poem and he'd cheer up.

She walked into the living room and sat down on the couch with Finnegan still nestled in her arms. She ran her hands through his slightly too long brown hair, which Chris insisted they let grow until Finnegan decided he needed a haircut. She just listened to him breathe and waited for him to talk, or tried to prepare what she would say. She knew she had to be delicate because he was a little boy and probably didn't understand what was going on.

The only world that Finnegan had ever known had included both of his parents. She and Chris had been living together since before he was born and up until a week ago, the most he had ever been without one parent was a few days. This wasn't his world and he didn't understand this chaos he had been thrown into. Chris had said he didn't want to be a part-time dad, but instead he wanted to be a full-time one, and now he wasn't, and that had to be as much of a shock to Finnegan as it was to Chris.

"Finny, you know how Mommy and Daddy told you a couple days ago that we were broken up?" she asked softly.

"Uh huh," Finnegan said quietly.

"Sweetie, what that means is that Mommy and Daddy aren't going to live together anymore."

"But Daddy lives here," Finnegan pointed out.

"I know that he does, sweetie, but when two people are broken up, they don't really live together anymore. It's just how it works out. I love Daddy very much, but me and Daddy just can't live together anymore. But we're meeting today to figure out how we're both going to get to see you all the time. Does that sound okay to you?"

"Okay," Finnegan said, but he didn't exactly sound okay with it, or did he sound like he fully understood it. But over time, she hoped that it would get better for him.

Stephanie smiled and kissed his head. "Okay, why don't we go get ready for Uncle Shane's and then you can have fun with him and tell him that he's too uptight for his own good, okay?"

"Okay," Finnegan said, a little more brightly this time as Stephanie stood up from the couch.

Getting Finnegan ready was a relatively easy task. The little boy was really low-maintenance. He had been so used to traveling he was like a whiz at packing things and knowing what to take. Stephanie knew it was probably too much of her influence, but she was the first to admit that it made things way easier on her when they were in a rush before setting off to wherever the show took them. Finnegan was on a three-day preschool schedule so on Mondays and Tuesdays he would accompany Stephanie to Raw.

Dropping him off at Shane's was also easy. Driving to meet Chris on the other hand, was very, very difficult. She didn't want to see him, but she knew that she was going to have to see him, now and for the next fourteen years at least, and then she'd still have to see him on occasion. And she hoped that every time she did meet with him it wasn't going to be as painful as it was right now. She arrived at the restaurant where they were meeting and he was already there, drinking an iced tea. She walked straight over and sat down.

"Hey," she said, trying to act nonchalant, but she was anything but.

"Hey, thanks for agreeing to meet with me," Chris said. He stared at her for a moment, "Don't worry, there're no more forthcoming proposals, I understand what happened and I'm trying to accept that. This is about Finn and that's all."

"I want to make this transition as smooth as possible for him," Stephanie said. "No lawyers, no scheduled visitation, no nothing."

"Me too. I just want things to be okay with Finn, he's the only one that matters in all of this," Chris agreed. "So I got an apartment, it's about five minutes away from here, it's a penthouse, only the best right?"

She laughed a little, "Yeah, only the best for you, I know that well."

"Shut up," he said good-naturedly. "But it's a two-bedroom so Finn can have his own room, and all of that. The only problem is I can't move in for another three weeks. And I'm not liking the whole staying and paying for a hotel for the next three weeks thing, that's just way too much hotel for me."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I'm actually going to go back to Winnipeg and crash at my dad's for a while," Chris told her. "I just need to collect my thoughts about this entire thing. A six-year relationship isn't exactly something you get over in a minute right?"

Chris wanted her to say something, anything that indicated she was hurting as much as she was. It was easy to put on a brave front, he was Chris Jericho after all, but inside, and at nights when he was alone, it got so much worse. He'd lie in bed, this strange bed that wasn't his own, that he hadn't spent night after night in, and he's lay there and stare up at the ceiling and try to imagine the feeling of Stephanie beside him. It wasn't hard to picture it and after six years, he knew her presence and the way she felt, but it wasn't the same as having her there, and he wasn't sure that anything would ever replace that feeling. He had been with this woman for so long, more than some married people and to suddenly break away from it was going to take its toll.

He just wanted to know that maybe it was taking the same toll on her. He didn't care if their hurt matched up, he just wanted her to feel a tiny bit hurt. He wanted to know if he meant anything to her at all because after the constant rejections, he was beginning to wonder if he meant anything at all to her. The thought that he might was one he didn't want to confront, but one that he might have to accept somewhere down the line.

"No, you don't get over it in a minute," Stephanie said, staring out the window to the cars zooming by, eager to get to their destination. She dared to look back at Chris and sighed as she looked at him. "You know this isn't easy for me either Chris, I'm not going to lie."

He sighed, and she could hear the relief in his breath. "I was just wondering. I'm not saying that you should."

"I know what you mean," she told him.

"See how you do that?" he said. "You know what I mean before I mean it, you know what I'm going to say so I don't have to. That's going to be something that is going to be hard to find somewhere down the line. It's hard because we were together for so long."

"I know," she told him. She was getting uncomfortable now because the little voices in her brain were starting to tell her that this was her own fault, that Chris leaving and them breaking up was all her fault. But it wasn't that. It wasn't that at all. Stephanie had demons, voices in her head that belonged to Chris that told her things, memories that would still pick at her conscience.

"We'll just have to get used to it. I mean, six years is a really long time, and I'm really sorry it didn't work out," Chris said, before the waitress came over and ordered their meals. Chris smiled as Stephanie ordered her usual meal, complete with all her quirky tastes.

"What? What are you smiling at?" she asked as she looked at him.

"You," he told her and she glared at him. "You always order the same thing, why don't you ever order something different."

"Oh, like you? You who has to try everything and anything on the menu? You have to try like every item on the menu because you feel like you have to know how everything tastes. I know my tastes."

"Live a little," Chris said. "Besides we both know you're going to end up eating off my plate, like usual because you like mine better, like usual."

"Not the time you ordered the duck liver paté, and then you puked when we were in the car and I had to pull over so you could throw up and Finny laughed at you."

"You told Finn to laugh at me," Chris pointed out. "I thought it might be good."

"Oh yeah, good, because anything that has liver in it is going to taste good."

"Just for that, you get no bites, do you hear me? No tastes, because you're going to pick off my…" It was that moment that Chris realized they weren't together anymore and this entire conversation was inappropriate and as his ex-girlfriend, she wasn't supposed to be eating food off of his plate. "Sorry, forgot for a minute that we weren't together."

"Oh…I guess it's just really easy to fall back to your old ways," she mumbled, now even more uncomfortable.

The marriage thing was now the elephant in the room. Chris wanted to talk earnestly about it and Stephanie wanted to run away from it. Chris was reminded again that they were at different crossroads and he tried to hang onto the anger that he had felt after leaving last Saturday. The anger he felt at her rejection, her constant rejections of marriage. He frowned at that and let the anger seep into his so he wouldn't fall back into her charms.

Stephanie reminded herself as well that they were no longer together. They were just two exes who happened to have a child together. She reminded herself that if it weren't for Finnegan, Chris would be long in the rearview mirror because he surely would've dumped her by now. He'd be off having a future with someone else and not her, because that's what he had said, that there was no future with her.

No future until she had pushed a future on him.


	5. Chapter 5

"_Okay, the gang's all here, so come on Steph, lay it on us."_

_Stephanie held her new baby in her arms and stuck her tongue out a little, "Chris, drum-roll please?"_

_Chris, who was perched next to her on the bed, turned and started drumming a beat on the table in an appropriate drum-roll. Shane rolled his eyes as he looked to his parents who were looking anxious to know what Stephanie and Chris had named their baby. Chris's parents also looked anxious, like this was all tedious and they should just get to it._

"_His name is…Finnegan Aaron Irvine," Stephanie announced proudly as she went back to staring at her child and ran her index finger down the bridge of his nose. "My little Finny."_

"_Finnegan?" Shane asked in disgust. "You're naming your son Finnegan?"_

"_Yeah, what?" Stephanie asked, looking up at him._

"_Do you want your kid's ass kicked?"_

"_It's not like we named him Yancy," Chris said. "Finnegan is an awesome name."_

"_Where'd you come up with it? I mean seriously, who the hell around here has the name Finnegan?" Shane asked._

"_Are you trying to make this day unhappy for me?" Stephanie asked. "I gave birth yesterday and the least that you could do is like my choice of name."_

"_You came up with it, should've figured," Shane teased._

"_You're such a jerk," Stephanie said as she shot a dirty look at her brother, "Finny, Uncle Shane is a jerk."_

"So, what do you want to do today?" Shane asked Finnegan. They had been sitting on the couch watching Spongebob for the past half hour and that was just about all Shane could take. He wasn't exactly Mr. Kid-Friendly. Finnegan shrugged as he looked up at his uncle. "Well that's not very helpful."

"I don't know," Finnegan articulated.

"Again, no help," Shane said, but his tone wasn't annoyed. "Hey Finn."

"Yes?" Finnegan said, fidgeting on the couch as he tried in vain to get comfortable.

Shane contemplated for a moment, "Do you miss your Daddy?"

"Yeah," Finnegan answered immediately and with a firmness to his voice. "I miss Daddy lots and lots, but Mommy said that he was picking me up today. Then I can spend the night with him."

"But you want him to come home huh?"

"Yeah," Finnegan nodded, "but Mommy said that she…that…Daddy and she are broken up, and that means that Daddy can't live at our house anymore. Mommy says what happens."

"Yeah, Mommy kind of knows what she's talking about right?"

"Mommy's smart," Finnegan said with a grin. Shane laughed at that. Stephanie was smart, too smart for her own good, and a total smartass. But to Finnegan, Stephanie was a superhero. She was Wonder Woman to him and Shane didn't blame him. She was Wonder Woman to a lot of people.

"She is smart," Shane agreed. "But I don't think she's being smart right now."

"Why?" Finnegan asked, looking at his uncle attentively.

Shane looked at Finnegan for a second. He couldn't even begin to figure out Stephanie on this one. His sister was a little stubborn, a little high-strung, and sometimes didn't know what was good for her. She had everything and she gave it away like it was nothing. By any and all accounts, Chris treated her very well, and they had a house that they bought, there was no white picket fence but there might as well have been. Then they had this little boy who was genuinely one of the sweetest kids that you could ever meet, and she had torn it apart for what?

"Because she won't let your Daddy come home."

"She won't?" Finnegan asked, his eyes wide.

"Uh uh," Shane said. "Your Mommy and Daddy are being stubborn right now. Especially your Mommy, she's being very stubborn and she doesn't know what's good for her. But I want to show her what's good for her."

"Okay," Finnegan said, not really understanding a whole lot of what his uncle was saying.

"Well, I want to get your Mommy and Daddy back together so they won't be broken up anymore."

"Okay," he said again, still not really understanding the dynamics of what Shane was saying. But what four-year old is going to be in tune with the emotional attachments of his parents? Not too many, and while Finnegan certainly felt the tension between his parents and knew that his daddy was not around, he didn't understand the reasons why. But then again, neither did Shane.

"How can I put this into terms you'll understand?" Shane muttered to himself as he thought of how he could possibly make the little boy understand. He tapped his chin and sucked on his teeth a little and then turned to face the little guy again. "What I want to do is get your daddy to come home."

"Daddy can come home!" Finnegan exclaimed standing up on the couch and looking at Shane. "Daddy can come home?"

"Well, I want your daddy to be able to come home," Shane said. "And I want to make sure that he doesn't have the opportunity to leave again. I want your daddy to marry your mommy."

"Why?" he asked.

"Well, when two people are married, it means that they stay together all the time, and they don't ever go away from each other, forever," Shane added for dramatic effect, which seemed to work since Finnegan's eyes were widening.

"Mommy said that she didn't have to marry Daddy," Finnegan told Shane.

"Yeah, she doesn't _have _to, but I really think that your mommy wants to, deep down, deep down in her stomach," Shane said, and then grabbed his nephew and tickled him around the middle as he squealed with laughter. "So Finn, do you like my idea?"

"Yeah," Finnegan screamed as he tried to get away from Shane.

"Good, because I'm looking out for you, kid," Shane told him, though he didn't think that the little boy cared at the moment.

Stephanie walked out of the restaurant with Chris next to her. It had taken all her willpower not to hold his hand as they walked out. Things had gotten so habitual for them over the past six years and now that they were apart she was noticing all their little habits that they had with each other. They had fallen into such a routine together.

Chris stared at the back of her head as she stood outside the restaurant, looking around at the busy shops on the street. She had her shopping face on and he thought it sad that he even knew she had a shopping face. They had worked out their schedules to accommodate Finnegan's schedule and thought they had a good system set up. Finnegan would go with Chris to Winnipeg to visit Chris's dad and then he'd spend the next couple weeks with her until Chris moved into his apartment. It all seemed to work.

"I should probably go pick up Finn," Chris said. "We'll stop by the house and pack his things for Winnipeg."

"Yeah, that sounds okay, you have the key, feel free to go inside."

"Cool…well…I guess we'll talk later, you know you can call my dad's whenever, if you need anything, if you miss Finn. Any time of day that you want to talk to him, just call, my cell phone, my dad's phone, any phone," said Chris. He knew that Stephanie would hate to be separated from Finnegan for that long a period of time. She didn't even really like it when he spent the night at someone's house, let alone spend a week away, even if he was going to be with his father.

"I know, and tell Ted that I said hello, okay," she told him. Chris's father had always liked her, and he actually never pressed her to get married to Chris like her parents did. Her parents had been fine with them having Finnegan out of wedlock, after getting over the initial shock of it. At the beginning they had wanted the shotgun wedding, but they had dropped it when Stephanie had said it was out of the question, but when he turned two they started to hint at it, and when Finnegan turned three, they really started turning up the burner. Chris's mother had passed away last year, but she was always supportive of their decision not to get married.

"Yeah, I will," Chris said, and he looked like he was going to hug her, but he refrained himself. "Yeah, um, bye Stephanie."

"Bye Chris," she said with a short wave as he started to walk away towards his car. She watched his back for several moments, feeling like she shouldn't move at all. She should just stay there and watch him walk away.

In a way, Stephanie felt like she was giving Chris his future back. Getting pregnant with Finnegan had never been in the plan. She never figured out what had happened there. He was an accident of epic proportions. Sure, she wouldn't trade him back for all the money in the world and she would gladly die for him, but he was an accident, and the circumstances surrounding his conception and the changes it brought to her life were forever.

She always felt like she had tied Chris down. She had gotten pregnant and she had told him. Sometimes, late at night, when her thoughts were muddled with sleep and the promise of dreams, she thought about how her life would've turned out if she had never told Chris about Finnegan. She knew that Chris loved his son, but if he didn't know he had a son, there'd be no difference. He would've gotten the future he had wanted, the one she wasn't in.

She could never give herself fully to Chris after she had heard that. She gave him everything she had yes, and she loved him and told him often and their relationship had been good. But she kept the marriage card off the table. It was the one way that she could control things that happened, that she could always give Chris the option of leaving. That's what she had been doing; she had been leaving the option open for Chris.

She always knew that he was going to open that door. She knew he was going to leave her and she steeled herself everyday for it. She never knew when the day would be that he would realize that he could have so much more with someone else and leave her. She knew he'd never leave Finnegan, but leaving her didn't seem such an impossibility, and if she kept herself his girlfriend, it wouldn't sting as much because she would've seen it coming.

It reminded her of something she saw once, or read, one or the other. All ahead of her was a series of tomorrows and one of those tomorrows was the day he was going to break up with her and it was lurking in front of her saying, "Beware of me." And so she had been aware of it, knowing that it was lurking, and last Saturday had been that tomorrow that had been lurking off in the distance.

She counted herself lucky that she had gotten six years with him. Six years with him was probably more than she deserved. If there was no Finnegan, they probably would've broken up that second year. She was just fun for Chris Jericho, someone to have fun with, like a friend with benefits. He never mentioned moving in together, never mentioned marriage, or kids, or any kind of future with her. Then she had told him she was pregnant and all of a sudden, he had done a 180 and he was all about the future. He wanted the house, he wanted the marriage, everything and anything.

That had happened all because of Finnegan. If there was no baby, he wouldn't have seen those things. She wanted to believe that he would have, and that he loved her solely for her person, but when Finnegan came into the picture it distorted it until she didn't know whether it was just her that drew his attention or the fact she carried the moniker, "the mother of my child."

Chris tried to keep his composure as he drove. Falling into routine with Stephanie, falling into the banter they loved had felt so natural. Several times during their lunch, they had fallen into the laughter and flirting that they had perfected in their six years together. It felt so good to him, to be like that with her and he could not for the life of him figure out why Stephanie didn't want to make that permanent. Was he not good enough for her?

Or…he didn't even want to contemplate the idea that she might have been cheating on him. No, that thought quickly flitted out of his mind. Stephanie and he were not cheaters; they did not cheat on each other. Neither one would do that with Finnegan in the picture, and neither of them would do that _without_ Finnegan in the picture. So his mind went back to not being good enough for her. It wasn't something he wanted to think about, but at this point, it was the only thing that he could think of that she could possibly use as a reason to not want to marry him.

Just the thought that she didn't want to marry him hurt his heart. He had been trying for years, he had done everything short of a PowerPoint presentation to try and convince her. He had tried to talk her into it, trick her into it, and anything and everything under the sun and she never relented. It was frustrating and that old, familiar anger was creeping inside of him again.

How dare she put his heart through the ringer like this? He deserved better than to be treated like this. He had been with her for six years, and they had had a child together. He most definitely deserved to be treated better than this. Now he was letting his anger take over for him. Yes, he was angry at Stephanie for tearing their family apart, for not wanting to marry him, for telling him to leave. He deserved better than that. He was fury-filled at the moment. But one thing, one thought made him angrier than all the others.

He was angry she didn't stop him from leaving.

And that stung the most.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews for this one. I really, really, really like this story and I hope that you are too. It's fast becoming one of my very favorites. So I hope you leave a review and make me happy. ;)

* * *

"I don't know Dad, I just don't think that it's in the cards for us anymore."

"And this is your thinking after six years together?" Ted asked as he regarded his son sitting across from him at the kitchen table.

"And after six years she won't even agree to be engaged to me," Chris pointed out. "I mean, even if we have a long engagement, even if we were engaged for four more years, at least we'd be working towards something. At least we'd have the opportunity, but she won't even say yes to an engagement…she won't say yes to me."

Ted sighed. "You know, your mother would have sage advice for you in this situation."

Chris looked down and smiled wistfully, "She definitely would have. Maybe she could've been the one to talk Stephanie into marrying me."

"But maybe she did just need more time."

"Dad, come on, we were together for six years and we have a child together. We were practically married as it was and yet, she wouldn't take that jump with me."

"Maybe she's scared, look at her parents, look at Vince and Linda, well, no, Linda is a great woman, but look at Vince, that man is just…I can't even stand him half the time I'm near him," Ted said and Chris laughed at that because he agreed with that to a fault.

"Who can though?" Chris said. "If I never get with Stephanie again, that's the only positive thing I can see."

"But on a serious note, her parents aren't exactly the prototype of a healthy relationship, and maybe she sees that and doesn't want it for herself."

"She told me to leave Dad, she didn't try to stop me or say anything. If she had said something, anything but what she said, I would have completely and totally not left. I would've taken it in stride and I would've stayed."

"So you just wanted her to say something?"

"Yes!" Chris said, running his hands through his hair in frustration. "If she had said, 'Stay, I can't marry you, but stay,' I would've stayed. You have no idea how it feels Dad to have the woman you love and have loved for the past six years let you walk out on them."

"No, I don't," Ted said. "But I think that you're looking at this from the completely wrong point of view. You aren't looking at it from her point of view. She's probably scared, Chris, and she was hurting too I'm sure."

"She doesn't seem to be hurting too much now. I mean, yes, I know she's hurt, but she doesn't seem very hurt. She doesn't seem broken up about it at all, she just keeps on going. I just…I get the feeling I've been fooling myself these past few years."

"Have you though? Really think about it Chris, have you been fooling yourself?"

"I honestly don't know anymore Dad. Stephanie and I, we're perfect together, and if I'm going to be honest, I think…I think having Finn kind of screwed up everything. You're well aware that he wasn't exactly the most well thought out plan in the world."

Ted chuckled at that, "Is that how you're going to put it?"

"I don't like calling my son an accident or a mistake," Chris explained. Finnegan was not an accident, and he was not a mistake; he was some greater plan that involved him and Stephanie. He was just the light of Chris's life, that was it, and an accident could never be the light of your life.

"So you think that having Finn was some kind of factor?"

"We weren't allowed to progress like a normal couple. You know, where you move in together, then get engaged, then get married, and _then_ have the kids. You don't have the kids first, I mean, you can, but it just kind of screws up the timeline."

"But it's a good obstacle to have come in your way."

"Well of course it is," Chris said. "Have you met Finn? He's the coolest little kid on the planet. He's Stephanie in male, little kid form. What's not to love about that? And then it all comes right back to Stephanie…"

"You love her Chris, we both know this, and we both know she loves you too."

"But what if it's not the same way I love her? What if she doesn't love me like I love her? What if she just stayed with me because of Finn? Oh God, that's probably it, she probably just stayed with me because she wanted Finn to have both of us and then I pushed marriage on her and she finally reached her breaking point."

"Chris, come on," Ted said. "You're acting like a crazy man now. Do you honestly think that Stephanie, _Stephanie_, would've stayed if she didn't love you? This is Stephanie we're talking about, and you know she'd never do anything she didn't want to do."

"That's true," Chris mumbled. "I'm being irrational now but I just don't know the answers to these fucking questions."

"Have you tried talking to her?"

"She's like a vault Dad, she never lets anything out that she doesn't want out and if you ask her then she gets super defensive about it. It's a wonder that I lasted six years with her, it's an even bigger wonder that I want all my years with her."

"Yes, it kind of is, Stephanie is one unique woman alright," Ted chuckled as he thought about the woman he had come to consider a daughter over the past six years. "She's something else alright."

"Something else…yeah, she really is," Chris said nostalgically. "She's like nothing else Dad. God, I love her and now we're not together anymore and it confuses me, I'm so damn confused by the entire thing."

"The best that you can do is try and talk to her Chris," Ted said. "Reach out there and see if you two can come to some sort of compromise. She may just be scared and if you talk to her about it, if you tell her all the things you tell me and all the things you tell everyone else, I think she'll see your side of things."

"You really think so?"

"The least you can do is try, and if you and Stephanie really decide that things are over between the two of you then you can try to move on, but right now you can't move on, this isn't moving on, it barely sounds like you two are even broken up, you're having lunch together and say it's just like old times, and you haven't officially moved out since a lot of your stuff is still in the house. If it were really, truly over, you'd know it, and if it is, then you'll just have to find someone else."

"That's the thing Dad, I don't think there _is_ anyone else," Chris told him earnestly and most definitely sincerely. "I've been with Stephanie for the past six years, we were friends for two years before that. When I first got called from the company in 1998, she was the one whom I stayed in contact with throughout. I'm going to be thirty-seven years old next month and I don't know, I want to be settled…" He sighed deeply and said quietly, "I was settled. Stephanie and I were settled."

"You're not too old, if I recall, you seem to have quite a few female fans," Ted pointed out, rather correctly because Chris was one of the most good-looking guys ever, if not _the_ most good-looking guy ever.

"Yeah, I know that I do, but…it's just not the same."

"Talk to her," Ted said firmly as Finnegan walked into the kitchen. "Hello there young man, what can we do for you?"

"Daddy, can I have a peanut-butter sandwich for lunch please?" Finnegan asked as he walked over for lunch.

"Sure you can, I didn't even realize it was lunchtime," Chris said, glancing up at the clock. He had been so engrossed in his conversation with his dad that he had lost track of the time. "Do you want jelly on it?"

"No," Finnegan said, shaking his head.

"Okay," Chris said, getting up and grabbing the necessary items for the sandwich. Ted opened his arms to Finnegan and Finnegan went over as Ted lifted him to put into his lap.

"So Finn, are we going to go to a hockey game tonight?"

"Yup," Finnegan nodded eagerly, looking up at his Grandpa. "We get to go see Moose, right Grandpa?"

"Yeah, we get to see the moose," Ted laughed. "I have to make a quick run to the store before we go to get food for Colt." He was referring to the golden retriever that he had and Finnegan smiled because he loved that dog.

"Okay Dad, we'll be cool here, won't we Finn?" Chris said as he slathered peanut butter on a piece of wheat bread.

"Uh huh." Ted stood up and placed Finnegan down in the now empty seat. He patted his son's shoulder as he walked out of the room. Chris smiled at his dad as he cut Finnegan's sandwich in half and set it down on a plate before putting it in front of his son. "Thank you Daddy."

"Not a problem," Chris said. "You want some milk with that?" His son nodded and he went to go get him a glass of milk as well, grabbing a water bottle for himself as he sat down across from his son and watched him take a couple bites. "Do I make a killer sandwich or what?"

"Daddy?" Finnegan mumbled through his sandwich.

"Hmm?"

"Uncle Shane said that Mommy won't let you come home, why won't Mommy let you come home?" Finn asked innocently, honestly curious as to what his daddy had done to make his mommy not let him come home.

"Uncle Shane told you this?" Chris asked, wondering if he should strangle Shane for bringing up the situation with Stephanie to Finnegan. He wanted to keep this as far from Finnegan as he could. The kid had enough to deal with, with him moving out.

"Yeah, why won't Mommy let you come home?"

Chris pursed his lips a little bit. "I don't know Finn, I really don't know. I wish that your mommy would let me come home, but I just don't know why. If I did, I'd tell you, but your mommy, she's a hard person to figure out."

Stephanie, later that same evening, was lonely. There was no other word to describe it. She didn't do well when she wasn't around Finnegan. In the four years since she had had her son, he had ingrained himself in her life so much that she couldn't bear to be without him for any long period of time. She knew that when he started kindergarten next year it was going to be a shock to her system, but that was a year away and she'd deal with it when it came to it, just like did for most of the significant events in Finnegan's life.

But usually when Finnegan was away, Chris was here with her, and they had adult time together. And no, that didn't merely consist of sex, but they just got to talk to one another without having to completely worry about Finnegan's next move or what they had to do for him. But this time was obviously different. Chris was in Canada with their son and she was here, all alone, and it was just so lonely. She hadn't felt lonely like this in the past six years.

She wandered around the big, empty house and just stared at the empty space that was going to be her life. This was it. Well, it wasn't it, but this would become a more frequent occurrence. She couldn't keep Finnegan to herself forever. Chris was going to want to see him and she wasn't going to deny him that. So she would have to get used to this big empty house. This big, empty house that suddenly had an air of sadness to it.

She smiled wistfully as she remembered them buying this house. She had pushed the thoughts of why they were buying this house out of her mind for a little while. She had been three months pregnant when they first saw it, and they fell in love immediately, it had everything they could ever want and more. It was seven bedrooms (excessive, yes), so it had plenty of room for all the things they would need, their bedroom, the baby's bedroom, two separate offices, a play room, a recording studio for Chris, and a guest bedroom. Downstairs, there was another room that had been converted into a gym for Chris, in addition to living room, family room, large kitchen. The backyard was huge, basketball court, grass area, pool. It had been perfect for them, but now it loomed so large in front of her.

They bought it, free and clear (which had been the main incentive to sell it to them, they could pay upfront for it), but couldn't move in for another three months. When they finally did move in, she had been six months pregnant, very noticeably pregnant and Chris wouldn't let her carry anything more than five pounds into the house. "That's what the movers are for," he had told her as they had somehow consolidated all their things into one house. She had watched from their porch as he brought things in. As she sat there, she had rubbed her stomach gently in a calming maneuver, feeling her baby move every now and then, and she recalled how she could live with this for the rest of her life. That despite the fact this was a move out of necessity rather than choice, it could turn out really well.

As she went upstairs after checking to make sure the doors were locked and the alarm was on, she sighed to herself as she saw many lonely years ahead of her. She wondered if Chris would take all of his stuff and bring it to his new apartment. He had said it was two bedrooms and spacious, but he couldn't possibly have room for his recording studio or his gym. She would gladly let him keep his things here if he wanted to keep them here. She wasn't so cruel as to throw his things out the door.

She wandered into his office, running her fingers across the desk a little and seeing if he had any messages on his machine. He didn't and she went to the door and closed it behind her. She walked to Finnegan's room next and just stared into the empty space. She had talked to him earlier before he had gone to bed and had heard him go on and on about the hockey game that he had gone to with Chris and Ted. She had smiled, glad that he had had a good time, but sad that she wasn't included in that good time. But that was her life now, and she'd have to accept it.

She walked to her bedroom after that, intending to go to bed. When she opened the door, the same smell as usual invaded her nose. Chris's aftershave was still wafting in the air and it had been a week since they had broken up. It was difficult coming into this room knowing it would smell like him and she briefly wondered if it was always going to smell like him. If years down the line she would open the door and his scent would still waft at her, mocking her, teasing her and making her believe that he was still there. She had been so used to this smell before they had broken up that she hadn't even smelled it when she walked in here, but now that he was gone, she was so keenly aware of it.

She walked into her closet to get dressed for bed and saw something peeking out from under some of her clothes. She tugged it out and bit her lip. It was one of Chris's Beatles shirts. She held it out in front of her. It was a picture from their album, "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band." She stared at it for a moment and then brought it to her chest as she bit her lip and felt her heart constrict at the thought that his things could be laying haphazardly all around the house and every day she could find something new. Here in her closet was his shirt, so who knew what else she could find? She laid the shirt gently on her chair and undressed herself, grabbing his shirt and putting it on, her body swimming in it. When she had been pregnant with Finnegan, she would wear Chris's shirts constantly in the later stages because they were large and comfortable. He had jokingly complained that she was going to stretch them out, but secretly he loved seeing her in his Iron Maiden shirt.

She brushed her teeth, avoiding looking into the mirror as she washed her face and walked into the bedroom. She climbed into her side of the bed, staring at the empty side next to her. If she squinted her eyes a little, she could pretend to see the indentation of his head on the pillows and the depression in the mattress from the weight of his body on it for however long they had had their mattress. She closed her eyes and embraced the silence surrounding her. Usually, Chris would be talking to her as she listened against his chest and then he'd laugh about something and his chest would rise, making her rise right along with it. She'd miss those moments, maybe not the most, but certainly not the least, she'd just miss those moments. But she reminded herself of her resolve. She was doing what was best for Chris.

Even if it broke her heart.


	7. Chapter 7

_Stephanie had waited another week to tell Chris about the baby._

_She just found that she had no right time to tell him. Every time she thought that she could bring it up, something happened and it was pushed to the back again. She knew that an announcement as huge as a baby shouldn't be kept to herself for much longer. What was she going to do, give birth and then tell Chris? It just didn't work that way and she knew it. But she was also really scared, especially after the things she had heard Chris say the week before._

_Now more than ever, she figured that Chris was going to run. Or not necessarily run, but he wasn't going to stick around. The thoughts of her just not telling him still rolled around in her head, and she admitted that right after she had heard Chris say he didn't see the future with her in it, she had seriously contemplated not telling him at all and breaking up with him to spare him the attachment of a child. But still, she found that she couldn't and wouldn't do that._

_They were lying in bed now, just about ready to fall asleep. Chris was intently watching television and she was lying on his chest with her eyes closed as she lulled herself to sleep with the rhythmic rising and falling of his chest as he breathed. She had just thrown up in the bathroom, masking the sound with the running water. Chris had been none the wiser and though she was still queasy, she managed to keep her nausea to a minimum. Any throwing up and Chris would be suspicious, but the nagging thought that she couldn't keep this inside anymore rang in her head again._

"_Oh, that was so not a penalty!" Chris exclaimed at some play on the television and she was startled out of her thoughts as she opened her eyes. Chris had felt her jump against him and he looked down at the top of her head and said, "Sorry Steph, did I wake you?"_

"_No, I was just lying here," she told him and she felt him run his fingers through her hair._

"_Okay, sorry anyways though," he told her as she rested her head back down on his bare chest._

"_Chris?"_

"_Yeah? Did you want me to turn the TV off or something, is it too loud for you?" he asked, immediately assuming that it had to do with the television or something that was annoying to her and she wanted him to change. _

"_I'm pregnant," she told him plainly, but her voice was stinted and hitched a little at the end. She thought it just best that she come out and say it. Beating around the bush and softening the blow wouldn't do much of anything. It wouldn't change the situation in any way, so why sugarcoat it for him when it hadn't been sugarcoated for her?_

"_What?" Chris asked, "You're going to have to repeat that, damn TV _was_ too loud."_

"_I'm pregnant," she repeated, not finding it any easier saying it the second time._

_Chris was silent for several moments and she didn't dare move. Moving might make the situation worse, and right now she'd rather take the silence than take yelling. She didn't want yelling. So she would take this silence and the way his body froze against her head and tensed up to the point where she felt like she was laying on a slab of concrete. _

_Chris raised his hand up and ran it over his face a second, "You said you were pregnant right?"_

"_That is what I said, yes," Stephanie told him. "And it's confirmed, I went to the doctor and everything, I'm just about nine weeks along. I actually have my…uh, first official appointment in a few days."_

"_You were on birth control," Chris pointed out._

"_I was, yes, but you know…it's not like…100 effective all the time Chris," Stephanie said, not liking where this conversation was going. He hadn't said anything in the positive, and while she knew his thoughts on their future, would he honestly deny his child? But then she thought to herself that she had had time to get used to this and she had actually cried the first time she had the chance after she had found out._

"_Yeah, I…yeah," he just said, not knowing what else to say. "And you…you're…feeling?"_

"_I have some morning sickness, but it doesn't strike exclusively in the mornings, it's kind of arbitrary," she answered. "Um, my breasts are kind of…well, tender, and stuff, but other than that, I feel pretty okay, nothing wrong."_

"_And you haven't gotten a real chance to get looked at?" he asked._

"_Uh…no, when I went, they confirmed it and told me to make an appointment, and so I did, and that appointment is, like I said, in a few days," Stephanie explained. "Chris…I just want you to know that I didn't plan this out. It took me by surprise, and I didn't just…I didn't plan this."_

"_Okay," Chris said, and he slipped out of bed, leaving Stephanie alone. He put on a pair of jeans and looked down at her, lying there in the big bed all alone. "Steph, I need some time okay, you kind of just shocked me here."_

"_Yeah, okay, um, take as much time as you need," Stephanie told him. She didn't want to lose him, she didn't want him to walk away so she would give him as much time as she needed, she would give him all the time, she just didn't want him to leave. "If you maybe need the night away from me, you can do that too, if you need to think."_

"_I might just do that," he said and she nodded, biting her lip. "Stephanie, this is a really huge thing, it's a really, really huge thing, and I'm not entirely sure how to take this. We've only been together for a year and we live in different states and we have no plan, this was not part of any plan. We don't plan, we were spontaneous and non-planners. I'm definitely going to need a little time, I'm going to need a lot of time."_

"_Okay, I understand," Stephanie told him. "I completely get that. Um…Chris, if you decide this is too much, if you decide this is too hard…I'd understand that too."_

"_You would?" She nodded. "Okay, well, I'm going to go then, I'll see you later or something."_

_She tried her best to muster up a smile, but couldn't do it. He started for the door and glanced back at her. She was sitting there, staring down at the bleached white sheets, her knees drawn up to her chin and her arms wrapped around them. Her chin was leaning on said knees and she was just sitting there, staring. _

_She was beautiful, and he loved her. Who the hell was he kidding? And what the hell was he doing? His girlfriend tells him he's going to be a father, tells him that she's pregnant, and he runs like a coward? He got to have a baby, and he was running away. He smiled at the thought of having a child. He was thirty-one years old, it was about time he settled down anyways, and he loved Stephanie and wanted to be with her. He turned and walked straight to the bed and sat down facing her. He looked at her as she slowly lifted her head to look at him quizzically. _

_Immediately his arms were around her, hugging her to him. She didn't know what to make of this, but she finally let herself hug him back, clinging to him tightly, "I'm sorry Chris, I didn't want this to happen."_

"_No, don't you ever apologize," Chris said. "This is going to be good, we're going to be good and whatever we're having, boy or girl, is going to be great. We're a family now, the both of us and little Irvine in there. Okay, I'm here, and I'm always going to be here."_

_She was glad she had told him._

Stephanie was hugging her little boy tightly even before he could make it up the walkway. She had heard Chris's car pull up and she had raced out of the house and down the walkway to get to her little boy. She knelt down as he threw himself into her arms. She kissed his cheeks repeatedly as he tried to push her away.

"Mommy, this is too many kisses," he told her.

"I missed you though," she told him as Chris watched on affectionately. "Didn't you miss me too?"

"Yeah, I missed you, but me and Daddy and Grandpa went to a hockey game, and I had cotton candy and the game was fun, and the Moose won the game."

"Oh the Moose won, that's great," Stephanie said, referring to the Manitoba Moose, the AHL hockey team in Winnipeg. "And did you have fun spending time with Daddy?"

"Yeah, I wish you were there though," he told her, hugging her again.

"I wish I could've been too," she told him, and she meant it. "Have you eaten dinner yet, Finny? Or did you eat with Daddy?"

"He hasn't eaten yet," Chris interjected. Stephanie finally looked up to him. He had Finnegan's kid suitcase next to him and his backpack slung over his shoulder.

"Oh okay, well, I'll just have to make some dinner then. We'll figure something out, won't we Finny?"

"Mommy, Daddy can stay for dinner?" Finnegan asked. Stephanie looked to Chris, who looked uncomfortable by the prospect. She shrugged her shoulders a little bit, not sure what they should do about that. Chris shrugged too, not knowing how to proceed.

"Um…I don't know Finny," Stephanie said.

"Please?" Finnegan asked again.

"If its okay with Daddy, I don't see why he couldn't stay for dinner," Stephanie said, looking up at Chris.

"Well, I've never been one to turn down an invitation," Chris said as Stephanie stood up. This was partly his house after all. Stephanie held Finnegan's hand as she heard him chatter away as they walked up to the house. Stephanie glimpsed back at Chris and saw him bringing up the rear with Finnegan's luggage so she turned back around to walk in the house.

Chris watched their backs, the hair color the same as Stephanie grinned while hearing Finnegan relay some story. He walked inside the house and he was half-expecting it to be completely different, maybe any and all remnants of his existence had been purged from the house, like he had never been there, but it was exactly the same, nothing was out of place or missing. It was all just the same.

Their dinner was awkward at first, but like many things regarding Chris and Stephanie, it fell into a routine, and they put up pretences of happiness for the sake of their son. He was happy to have them all here, and while he still didn't quite get the entire breaking up thing, he was glad that for now he had both of them there so they could both listen to him tell his stories, which they seemed to hang off of every word with.

After dinner, Stephanie sent Finnegan upstairs to change into his pajamas as she and Chris started to gather the dishes. "You didn't have to stay and help with the dishes you know," Stephanie told him.

"Its okay, I wanted to stay and help, it's the least I can do since you actually cooked the meal," Chris said. "And thanks for inviting me over, I think it makes Finn a lot happier to know that we can still talk to each other."

"Yeah, I agree," said Stephanie.

The pitter-patter of tiny feet broke up their conversation as Finnegan padded his way into the kitchen, "Mommy, I put my jammies on like you said."

"Thank you Finny," Stephanie, going over and picking up her son. "Do you think it's time to go to bed?"

"Yeah, I can go to bed," he told her, rubbing at his eye a little. "Daddy, can you tuck me in too?"

"Sure kiddo," Chris said, coming over and taking Finnegan from Stephanie's arms and giving him a big hug before putting him down. "Race you to your room?"

"Yeah!" Finnegan said as he took off running.

"Hey no fair, you're cheating!" Chris yelled as he took off after the little boy. "No headstarts!"

Stephanie followed after them, hearing their laughter as they made their way upstairs, Chris catching up to Finnegan and lifting him up by his pants and carrying him off to bed. This was the kind of thing she missed with Chris not around. She knew it was the best decision to let him go, but she missed this. She missed the little moments, but she reminded herself of her purpose. She was giving Chris what he deserved, the chance to do what he really wanted to do.

There was a short interlude for teeth-brushing before they made their way to the bedroom itself. She got into the room and Chris was sitting on the edge of Finnegan's hockey bed as the boy was crawling under the covers. Stephanie came over and sat on the other side of the bed as Finnegan settled himself under the blankets as Chris pulled them up for him as the little boy's head hit the pillow with a soft whoosh of air.

"Do you have everything you need?" Stephanie asked.

"Yup."

"Did you want some water?" Chris asked.

"No," he said, shaking his head.

"Story?" Stephanie asked.

"Uh uh," Finnegan said as he started to doze off already, tired from his long flight from Canada earlier that day. Chris nodded and leaned forward to press a kiss to Finnegan's forehead. Stephanie leaned in to do the same, brushing a little bit of his hair back as she did so. She kissed him on the forehead and he closed his eyes as his parents watched him drift off to sleep. When they were satisfied by his level of tucking in, they went downstairs to finish the rest of the dishes.

Stephanie put the last dish into the dishwasher as Chris turned off the water. There was nothing left for her to do, or him to do for that matter. She wiped her hands with a paper towel, tossing it at the garbage and making it, doing a little victory sway. Chris watched her do that, and didn't want to leave. They had many nights like this one and for all intents and purposes they had been married without the rings.

"Well, that's everything," Stephanie said awkwardly.

"What are you doing for the rest of the night?"

"I have some ideas to go over, smooth over really, then I'm going to do a little revising for next week's script, so yeah, I have a fun-filled, exciting night ahead of me," she said sarcastically. "You?"

"Don't know," he shrugged. "But I guess I should…"

"Yeah, you probably should…"

"Yeah," he said, looking around. Stephanie looked at him a moment and he turned slightly so that he was facing her. He cleared his throat. He didn't want to leave. This was his house as much as it was Stephanie's, and he had lived here for the past five years. "So I guess I'll see you…later…"

"Yeah, and you know, thanks for coming, Finny loved that you were here, I think he gets a little homesick for you when you're not around. But it's just something that we all have to get used to," she nodded to herself, looking down at the ground.

Heaven help him, he thought she was the most beautiful thing in the world in that moment. Her hair was framing her face. When they had first started seeing each other, she had this long brown hair that he couldn't keep his fingers out of, and when she wore it wavy, Chris was mesmerized to the point of distraction. She had gone through a horrible phase of bangs and blonde hair somewhere around the time soon after Finnegan was born. He told her constantly to change it, and after much prodding, her hair was back to its original beauty, long, brown, no bangs and sometimes she wore it wavy, or at least she used to.

Her profile was one he knew well, better than anyone's, even his son's. He knew her eyes, the way they were blue and then gray and then blue again, an enchanting dance of sorts. And he knew the curves of her body. He knew everything and anything about her. He knew the way she felt and kissed and touched him. He knew her smile and the way her eyes would light up when she got a good idea or the way she'd sit on the counter dangling her legs as she watched him cook dinners on his nights to cook, just like Finnegan did when he got old enough to sit on the counter.

He knew the way she was an awesome mother, something she had told him she was born to be good at because she was the consummate professional. He had laughed at her looking at Finnegan like a project, but as time wore on, she tackled every project that Finnegan threw their way. He loved the way she held the little boy when he was upset, or the way she'd make funny faces at him when he wanted to giggle or the way she would tuck him in at night.

Stephanie looked up at him and was caught by surprise that he was staring at her with a fierce look in his eyes, an almost predatory look. She opened her mouth to speak, but didn't get the words out because Chris was kissing her. His tongue sought out hers as he pulled her by the hips to get closer to him. It was a move she was familiar with as this scene had been mirrored many times before. She found herself wrapping her arms around his neck as she let herself enjoy this moment.

Chris felt her moan against his mouth and it was so easy, this was all so easy. He started to walk her slowly to the counter as he lifted her unexpectedly and set her down above him as she gave a little squeal against his mouth. He stood between her legs as she wrapped them around him. He cupped her face in his hands as he leaned up to her mouth. She ran her hands through his short hair. She still hated that it was short, but she had learned to deal with it, and she had never loved the feel of it more than she did that second.

Chris needed this, he needed her and she didn't even realize it. He didn't know what was going through her mind, but he knew that he was going crazy without her. Maybe she didn't feel the same need as he did. That's when he realized what he was doing, what they were doing and the fact that they shouldn't be doing this. He pulled away from her gently and she whimpered at the loss of contact.

"I'm sorry, that was completely wrong of me to do," Chris whispered to her. "I think that I should probably just go."

"No," Stephanie whined as she leaned in to capture Chris's lips again and let them cover her own again. It had felt so good and so safe and at-home, and she didn't want to give that up again.

"Stephanie, I can't do this anymore. If we ever have any hopes of moving on past each other, we're going to have to stop this. We should probably stop seeing each other outside of you know…Finn."

"What? You mean stop talking to each other?"

"I think for a while, it'd be good," he said, going against every fiber of his being. But if Stephanie and him were broken up, they couldn't fall into this routine. "Stephanie, I can't be with you like this, I need more from you. I can't come home and not be with you in the way that I want to be with you."

"Oh, so you want to just cut all contact then? You want to get a go-between for Finn? How about I just drop him off at like Shane's and then you pick him up from there and then you'd never have to see me again!" Stephanie said, starting to get angry. He had gotten her hopes up and now he was dashing them again. She thought, for a brief moment, that things could be the way they were. She'd take it. She'd take him back if it meant he'd be here. She might not be what he wanted, but he was what she needed.

"Look, don't get pissed at me! I'm not the one that broke us up, you broke up with me! You can't even marry me!"

"Get out," Stephanie said, venom in her voice and fire in her eyes. "Get the hell out of my house!"

"This is my fucking house too!" Chris yelled.

"No, no it's not, you forfeited that when you left!"

"I had no choice!" Chris countered. "I can't be with you anymore, I can't be with you and not have all of you, don't you get that?"

"Get out! Just get the hell out of here! You don't get me Chris, you don't get anything about me! So just get the hell out of my sight!"

"Maybe if you told me!" he yelled at her.

"No, okay, go because what I want, what I knew all along…just go Chris," she said, letting the fight drain out of her. "I'm not going to have our son wake up to hear us fighting. If you don't want to speak to me, fine, I can live with that."

For a moment, Chris had thought he had gotten through to her, but obviously he hadn't. He closed his eyes. "If we're apart, we can move on. We won't have to rely on the other."

"Fine," she said dully. "I won't contact you unless it has to do with Finny. I won't put the burden on you."

If Chris had gotten the implications of what she was saying, maybe he would've gotten it. If he had ignored the hurt in his heart, maybe he would've seen the hurt written so plainly in her face. Maybe he would've heard the deeper meaning behind her words, the reasons all being laid out right there in front of his face. But Chris didn't pick up on any of it, and that was going to be his downfall.

So he left, and with his departure, he began two new beginnings.

For two people forever entwined.


	8. Chapter 8

**Two Weeks Later**

"You better have a damn good reason for this McMahon."

"You'll have to excuse me Roger, I've got an unexpected visitor and I need to take this meeting, I'll call you back with the logistics," Shane said into his phone, saying goodbye and hanging up the receiver. "Hello Trish."

"Hello Trish?" Trish said, scoffing. "You call my home and my husband told me that there was an emergency with Stephanie and Finnegan and so I fly down here immediately, grab a taxi, get down to headquarters and see Linda and ask what happened to Stephanie and Finn and find out they're fine. So then I think that there must be something wrong with your brain! I flew in from Toronto for nothing!"

"Well, it wasn't for nothing," Shane said. "I definitely called you for a reason."

"A reason so big that I had to fly to Connecticut to hear it?" Trish asked, folding her arms across her chest. "I thought something had happened to Steph or God forbid Finn. I sat on the plane and thought up all these horrible scenarios that could've happened to Finn. He's my godson, you know I love him, don't _ever_ do that to me again!"

"This is about Finn, and just because he's physically safe doesn't mean that he's okay."

"Okay, lay it on me," Trish said, coming into the office and sitting down across from him.

"Well, Chris and Stephanie broke up."

"I'm well aware," Trish said. "They've been broken up for almost a month now."

"I know, and don't you think that's something we need to correct?" Shane asked. "Chris and Stephanie have been apart for a month. Finn has had his parents apart for an entire month."

"Shane, I know that it happened, you don't have to keep repeating it. What do you want me to do about it though? It's not like I have a magic wand that's suddenly going to let me put everything back together. The two of them broke up, we have to respect their privacy."

"No we don't!" Shane said adamantly. "We don't have to listen to a word they say. Do you know why Stephanie would break it off with Chris? I mean, she didn't give me a good reason and since you're her best friend, I thought that you might have some insight."

"I don't know, she won't tell me either," Trish shrugged. "I'm not going to beat it out of her. If she broke up with him, then she has her reasons. Shane, maybe their relationship wasn't going well, or maybe they found out they weren't compatible. We don't know."

"They have a son together. They also lived together for like five years, they've known each for like nine years. That's meant to be Trish. If that's not meant to be, then what hope is there for the rest of us?"

"Shane, I really don't think it's our place to interfere," Trish told him. "I respect the fact that they're ending their relationship. I really think that you should too."

"I'm thinking completely about Finn here," Shane said back. "I don't want my nephew to have to be transported back and forth like he's some sort of object. What my sister and Chris fail to see is that their break-up is affecting Finn too."

Trish sighed. Shane had a point with all of this, though it took him forever to get to it when he really could've told her over the phone. She hadn't really thought of how this affected Finn in the long run. She knew that he had had a hard time wrapping around the fact that his mother and father weren't married when it had come up with him. This was probably even harder to understand, as it would be for any young kid.

Finnegan was a sweet little boy, kind of the opposite of his parents actually, so she didn't want anything to hurt him, and perhaps they were forgetting the ramifications of the break-up on the young boy. "Okay, so you've got a point, is that all you've got?"

"Well, since you're Steph's best friend and you hold a lot of leverage--"

"I'm not going to do something like talk her into getting back together with Chris, Shane. That's entirely Stephanie's opinion and choice and I'm not going to get involved in something like that."

"No, I don't want you to talk her into anything, well, maybe something. My thinking is that if Stephanie sees what's out there and realizes that she doesn't like it, she'll go back to what's right."

"I'm not sure I follow you," Trish said, looking a little perplexed as to what he was suggesting.

"Well, you've got the hook-up, we're heading to Toronto in a couple of weeks and I was wondering if you knew any…single, available men."

"I didn't know that you swung that way Shane," Trish said with a smirk and Shane scowled. She laughed and licked her lips a little. "You want me to set up your sister, who isn't even a month removed from a six-year relationship?"

"Yes, because then she'll see that she's meant to be with Chris."

"Shane, I don't like this," she told him honestly. "I'm not in the business of meddling. If Stephanie wants to be set-up, or you want me to set her up, I will, but it won't be for the purposes of trying to get her back together with Chris. That's her decision, not mine, not yours, hers."

"You can't tell me you don't think Chris and Steph are perfect together."

"They are, I won't lie, but that's to us, the outsiders, maybe their relationship has been bad for a really long time and they were just really good at keeping it together for Finn."

"I refuse to believe that. So you'll set her up?"

"And what if she has a good time?"

"You think she'd have a good time?" he asked, and she shrugged. He thought for a moment, then chuckled, "It won't happen, this is Stephanie, and I know her. So if you can just find a guy to go out with her in the next two weeks. Break out a picture or something, I'm sure she has a lot of really great pictures that you have. She's pretty, just you know, show it off."

"You're a whack job Shane, this isn't going to work, and then what if it backfires on you. What if I set her up and she has a fantastic time and decides to see this guy again? Then she gets a new boyfriend and she falls in love? Where does that leave Chris?"

Shane frowned. He didn't like thinking of the logistics or the consequences. He was a McMahon, they just went balls out in everything and didn't care about the consequences until later. But there was just no chance that Stephanie would find someone else, just no chance. She loved Chris, she had been with Chris forever and they had a son. In Shane's mind, that made them perfect together.

"It wouldn't happen," he asserted, "It just wouldn't happen. I have faith."

"Fine, but I'm not going to find someone I know she'll hate Shane, I'm not doing that. And if she has fun with this guy, I'm going to encourage her."

"Fine, we'll see though, we'll see."

"And for the record, don't you ever call me telling me there's an emergency when there isn't," she told him, stalking out of the room.

Shane sat back in his desk chair and thought for a moment. He had to go see Stephanie and gauge how receptive she would be to another date, or not. If she wasn't, maybe he'd scrap the plans and just tell her to get with Chris or he'd put her in a headlock like when they were little. No, that wouldn't work, she was a thirty-one year old mother now, and she'd probably get Finnegan to kick him in the shin.

Shane rang the doorbell and waited for a moment. And then another moments as the moments ticked by. He turned around and saw that Stephanie's car was indeed in the driveway so she had to be home. The one thing that she and Chris had never been eccentric about was cars. He had one and she had one and that was it. They had no need for vintage cars or fast cars, just cars that got them where they needed to go.

"Shane, what are you doing here?" Stephanie asked as she opened the door.

"I live ten minutes away, is it such a crime to drop over?" he asked.

"No, I just wasn't expecting you."

"What took you so long to get the door?" he asked as he walked inside the house behind her.

"Finny and I are making Chris's birthday present," Stephanie explained. "It involves painting so I had it all over my hands."

"Chris's birthday present?" Shane asked with a hint of amusement in his tone.

"Yes, Chris's birthday is in nine days and Finny wanted to start on his card, so that's what we're working on. We're going to buy his present this weekend, and then wrap it to give it to him."

"So you're getting him a present too?"

"We haven't spoken in two weeks, but I don't think it's been so long that I can't give him something," Stephanie said, though she hadn't spoken to Chris in two weeks. She had kept her phone on vibrate and her answering machine was picking up any and all calls. She was still stinging from what had happened when Chris had come over for dinner.

She thought that she could have him, but it turned out that she was completely wrong. He didn't want her. He had stopped himself from kissing her and touching her, and then taking her up to their bedroom and having his way with her. She wanted it too; she didn't realize how much she wanted it until Chris's hands had been on her hips. But he had stopped himself just in time, for him at least. She had fallen in too far at that point and sought out nothing more than his mouth. But what could she have said or done? Chris had made it pretty clear that he didn't want her, and she had to respect that.

Getting married for Finnegan wouldn't do any good and she was sure that was his reason. And while she could love Chris with all her heart, she just couldn't give herself to him completely when his intentions weren't totally for her.

"Besides," Stephanie said to him, "I got him his gift months and months ago."

"Oh," Shane said as they walked out into the backyard where there were paints sitting there and a big huge white card. "Wow, this is something else."

"Well, we had a little mishap with the first one so we're trying again," Stephanie said as she sat next to Finnegan. "So Finny, ready for round two?"

"Yup Mommy, hi Uncle Shane, are you going to help?" Finnegan asked. Stephanie looked up at her brother with a smirk. She knew he would never ever let himself paint or fingerpaint. The idea alone was enough to send him into convulsions.

"No, I just wanted to talk to your mommy," Shane said.

"What is it this time?" she asked.

"Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing, how you were holding up?"

"I'm fine Shane," Stephanie lied coolly. She wasn't fine, not even close to fine, but she could pretend, she'd been doing it for long enough now. "I'm not going to fall apart just because my relationship did."

"I'm just worried about you is all," he said defensively. "I mean, being suddenly single is a huge step and I just want you to know as your big brother, that I'm behind you a hundred percent. I mean, I want you with Chris, yes, but if it doesn't work out, then I'm there for you." There, Shane could lie too.

"Well, things didn't work out with Chris. Things are completely broken off. We haven't spoken more than a few words over the past couple weeks and that's fine with me. He's been in Winnipeg until his apartment is ready and everything is completely broken off."

"So if he were to go out with someone, you wouldn't care?"

"Is he going out with someone?" she asked suspiciously.

"No, just wondering, and if you were to go out with someone, I mean, you would right, since you and Chris are completely broken up. Since you have no relationship, and moving on generally means that you would start to date other guys since you're only thirty-one and you've never been married."

"Well…yeah, sure, I guess dating wouldn't be out of the question," Stephanie admitted. "If I met the right someone, I could see myself dating again. If that's in the cards for me, and if they like Finny, because if they didn't like Finny or if Finny didn't like them, I'd dump them."

"Well, I guess you really are moving on," Shane said, though inwardly he was taking notes. He wasn't doing this to be a schemer or to stir up trouble, he just wanted his sister to be happy, and he had convinced himself that the only way that she was going to be happy was if she had Chris. "I'm happy for you. Anyways, I should get going, I didn't want to stay here that long anyways, I've got a date tonight."

Stephanie rolled her eyes, "Spare me the details. Say goodbye to Uncle Shane, sweets."

"Bye Uncle Shane," Finnegan said casually, not letting his eyes stray from his art project in front of him. Shane tousled his hair a little and showed himself out as Stephanie turned to Finnegan.

"This is looking great Finny, Daddy is going to love it so much."

"I know," he said, causing Stephanie to laugh at his confidence.

"I think Daddy is going to love it."

The next nine days were tough for Stephanie. She had been celebrating birthdays with Chris for a long time, and just a month and a half before, barely, they had been celebrating her birthday. Finnegan and Chris had made her breakfast in bed and then they had spent the day at the park and Chris had made a picnic for her. It was incredibly cheesy and at the end of the day they had laughed about it, but they knew they had had a good time.

Chris had just moved to his apartment and he had no furniture besides some stuff he had bought last minute. Stephanie rang his buzzer and when they identified themselves, he let them up. She intended to just drop off Finnegan, give Chris his present and go. She didn't think she could take any more than that. She had originally planned a special day for his birthday, her waking him up with kisses and her naked body, and then she'd cook for him, and then…well, she didn't want to think about what they would've done. Instead she rang the doorbell to his new residence. That was a surreal feeling.

"Hey!" Chris said as he saw Finnegan, and Stephanie too. Despite what he had said, and what she had said a couple of weeks ago, he missed her and he needed to see her, if only for one second.

"Hi Daddy! Happy Birthday!" Finnegan said, thrusting his card at Chris.

"Wow, look at the size of this thing, and a present too! I'm so lucky, why don't you bring it inside while I talk to your mommy for a second."

"Okay," Finnegan said, going inside and looking around at his new surroundings. Chris turned to Stephanie and gave her a small, tentative smile.

"Hi, so this is your new place?"

"Yeah, it is," he said. "Oh, let me take that," he said, referring to the bag of Finnegan's things she was holding. She gave it over to him and he took it, holding it in his hand. "Thanks for letting him stay the night with me, it'd be a crappy birthday if I didn't get to see him."

"Yeah, speaking of which, Happy Birthday," she told him softly. "I know it isn't how we were going to spend it, I had a plan…you don't want to hear about that," she chuckled mirthlessly, shifting her weight between her feet. "Oh, before I forget…"

"Forget what?" Chris asked, wondering if she had any special instructions for Finnegan.

Stephanie leaned forward and picked up the large flat present that she had leaned against the wall. She held it in front of her and shoved it in his direction, "Happy Birthday, this is for you."

"Stephanie, this is…you didn't have to do anything for me?" he told her, feeling even more guilty for what had happened a couple weeks ago.

"No, its okay, I actually bought this months and months ago, and to not give it to you now seems kind of fruitless, its not something I could really use or anything, so you should have it, and…you could…um, it might look good in your apartment, looking at it from here it seems a little bare."

Chris rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, uh, thanks for this…whatever it is, do you want me to open it now?"

"If you wanted, I mean, you could, but you could wait until I leave."

"I'd like you to stay while I open it," he told her softly. On his previous birthdays, Stephanie would always be leaning over his shoulder as he unwrapped his gift and trying to get at it herself when she was unsatisfied by the speed at which he ripped the paper. Then she would constantly ask if it was good, or if he liked it, until he kissed her into submission. While he knew that wasn't going to happen this time, he could pretend for a little bit that she was still his.

She followed him into the apartment and she resisted the urge to look at his new life. Whatever it was she knew that it didn't include her. Finn was sitting on a loveseat and came bounding over. "Is that Mommy's present?"

"Yeah," Chris said, "Do you know what it is?"

"Nope, Mommy wouldn't tell me," Finnegan said as he tried to look at it. Chris lifted him up easily and set him on the counter next to the gift. "Are you going to open it, Daddy?"

"You bet I am," Chris said.

"Go ahead," Stephanie said, "And I really hope you like it, and if you don't, well, I mean, you can't really return it."

Chris ripped open the paper covering the gift and when he saw what it was, he gasped in shock. He looked to Stephanie, who had a ghost of a smile on her face as she stared down at it. He looked at it again and almost started crying. He had to blink back tears at it; it was so incredible as he reached to run his hand over the glass.

"Stephanie…this is too much…"

She shrugged, "I thought you'd like it, I wanted to get it for you."

"Holy, oh my God, is this the original!" Chris said as he stared for a long moment.

"Yeah, that's the original."

Chris stared back down again. It was a few different things actually. In the middle was the original handwritten manuscript to the Beatle's "A Day in the Life," written by John Lennon, next to that was a record sleeve with all four Beatles signatures on it and, and then underneath was a handwritten autograph to him from Paul McCartney. Chris was in absolute shock at the different items, his mouth almost drooling at what he had in his hands.

"This is…oh my God…how did you get this stuff!" Chris asked, looking at her with his mouth agape.

She tried to look casual, "Um, well, the manuscript was up for auction and I put in a bid and got it, I won't tell you for what, you'll kill me, and then the autographs I got from someone, and the autograph from Paul, well, remember when we went to his concert earlier this year?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"Well, while you were rocking out to the opening act, and I said that I was going to go call and see how Finny was, I pulled some strings, got backstage for a moment when he was back there and asked for an autograph for you."

Chris scooped up Stephanie in his arms, forgetting for a moment they were no longer together. Stephanie let herself fall into his embrace, ignoring the feelings that surged through her with his touch. He hadn't touched her in two weeks, hadn't looked at her or been near her, and it killed her. This was just too much now, the feelings overwhelming her. She kept her mantra up and remembered herself. She pulled away before she got completely lost.

"I'm glad you like it," she whispered.

"Thank you so much," Chris whispered back, "This is one of the best gifts I've ever gotten, besides Finn, I think this might be the best gift I've ever gotten."

"Well, I'm just, I'm glad you like it." Chris wanted to kiss her. He wanted to give in and just take her in his arms again and say, "forget it." He wanted her, and he didn't care about marriage, he didn't care about anything. She had gone to so much trouble. But…then he remembered that he couldn't have her the way he wanted and resolved himself.

"I love it, again, thank you. Thank you so much."

"It's the least I could do…you let me have you for six years."

"And you let me have you for six too," he said, running his hand over her cheek.

"I um…I've got to go, you and Finny have a great time, and don't let him stay up too late and stuff. Just…have a good birthday," Stephanie said quickly, wanting to make her escape as soon as she could. She raced to the door and struggled with the locks.

"Finn, sit right there," Chris said, going over to Stephanie and helping her with the locks.

"My brother was talking the other day about moving on and dating other people, I think we should start doing that," Stephanie said quickly as Chris unlocked the last lock, letting his hand fall by his side.

Before he could process what she had said, she was gone.


	9. Chapter 9

"_Don't you even touch that!"_

"_Are you kidding me with this?" Stephanie asked as she looked at the box labeled "Blankets." _

"_I'm not kidding, don't touch it, I'll get it," Chris said impatiently._

"_Chris, I'm not a porcelain doll," Stephanie told him angrily, hands on hips as she stared him down at the beginning of their driveway. "I think that I can carry a box of blankets, that doesn't seem like such an arduous task."  
_

"_You're not supposed to be lifting things, you could throw out your back and then you'll be stuck in bed for weeks and I'm not going to listen to you complain," he told her, walking up to her with a large box in his hands. "I'm telling you, that's what the movers are for, when they get here with the furniture, they will bring the stuff inside."_

_She dug her hands into her hips, "Chris, I don't get why you're being so overprotective, I can help too you know, just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean that I can't help. I can _so_ help!"_

"_You can help by unpacking things or something while I bring things inside," he said as he set the box down and swiped his hand across his sweaty forehead. "Look, humor me okay? I don't ask you for much, but humor me with this. I just don't want my pregnant girlfriend carrying things."_

"_I don't want to just sit around like an idiot!" she protested._

_Chris sighed and walked up to her from behind as she turned her back away from him. He kissed her neck and slung one hand over her shoulder and across her chest so it rested on her left arm. With his left arm he snuck it around her waist to rest it on her growing stomach. Touching her stomach and feeling the roundness of it always brought a smile to his face as he thought about the baby growing inside. His baby was growing in there, his baby was coming not too far off from now._

"_Humor me, please?" he whispered teasing his lips against her neck. "Come on Steph, you know I love you and the baby, little no-name boy Irvine. I just want you to take it easy." He rubbed his hand gently over her swollen abdomen and noticed as she frowned. He pressed another kiss to her neck, hoping to calm her down enough so that she would take it easy._

"_Fine, I'll humor you, but only because I love you."_

"So you don't know how he took it?"

"No, I've been avoiding him for the past week or so," Stephanie told Trish as they sat for a cup of coffee. "I even did my stupid idea of having a go-between with me and Finny. I drop him off at my parent's house, Chris picks him up there and then we do that in reverse for when I have to pick him up."

"That's no way to live Steph," Trish told her.

"Look, I know, but I don't know what to say or do in this situation," Stephanie answered. "I mean, at some point, we've got to move on if we have any chance of finding other people. If I'm not supposed to be with Chris, then I firmly believe I'm supposed to be with someone else out there, and he's just waiting for me, and I have to take that plunge."

"So soon?"

"Yes, because if I don't do it while I have the nerve, then I'm never going to do it."

Trish quietly took another sip of her coffee, rolling her eyes to herself when she knew that Stephanie wasn't looking. It was such a typical McMahon thing to barrel forward into something. Shane with his plan to get Chris and Stephanie back together and Stephanie with her wanting to move on, didn't anyone take any time any more to grieve something? She wasn't sure if Stephanie was doing this to prove a point or to convince herself that what was right in front of her wasn't the right thing.

With that, Trish groaned inwardly. Now she was starting to think along the same wavelength as Shane and that was never a good idea. If things had been perfect between Chris and Stephanie, then obviously they would still be together and not broken up as they were now. They would've found a way to work out whatever happened between the two of them.

"Well, okay then," Trish said, at a loss for words. "If you think that you're ready to move on, then you're ready to move on. How do you think that Finn is going to take all of this?"

Stephanie bit her lip, "He sees me and Chris all the time, so I don't think it'd be too big an adjustment for him. I mean, he's a smart kid, and he's growing up, he can learn to understand that Chris and I aren't together anymore."

"Yeah, he is a smart kid, but he's also four and the only world he's ever known has had you and Chris together," Trish pointed out.

Stephanie groaned, "Look, Shane already gave me this talk, but things between Chris and I are over. We're over, that's it."

"Why though, Stephanie? That's what everyone is wondering, not even two months ago, you were fine, you were sending me pictures of Finn in preschool and everything and pictures from your birthday at the park and I had to hear about all the sweet things that Chris did for you, and all the sex you had that was so great and blah blah blah, if the sex was good, why'd you end it?"

Stephanie laughed, "Of course the sex was good, the sex was always good with Chris, I mean, those hands, my God, why do you think I ended up pregnant unexpectedly?" She shook her head and continued, "The bottom line is that Chris wanted to get married and I didn't."

"He asked again?" Trish said, knowing the number of times that Chris had asked in the past.

"Yeah, he asked again, and we fought again."

"Stephanie, I'm going to have to side with him on this one, I don't know why you won't just marry the man. You have everything that you could possibly want, why won't you just give him this one concession?"

"Because I have reasons that are my own and you don't need to know the reasons and nobody else does either," Stephanie said defensively.

"Okay, okay, geez Stephanie, don't blow a gasket over there. I get that you're upset, you don't need to get any more defensive about it. I know that you have reasons, I wouldn't expect you to upend your life if there wasn't a good reason."

"People just don't get it," she said softly. At least the people in her life didn't get it. She was sure that there were plenty of women out there like her. There had to be at least one woman out there who had gotten pregnant by her boyfriend and that boyfriend proposed only because she was pregnant. She knew there were and that comforted her a little bit. She was also happy that she hadn't been the one to say yes and enter a marriage based on force rather than choice.

Before she had gotten pregnant, she and Chris never faced choices, it was always just do whatever felt right. They were never serious about being together, just living for the moment and having fun. Maybe Finnegan had been God's little wake-up call to say that every relationship is serious and who were they kidding to think they could get away with just having fun with each other? The sex had been good and the dates had been fun, and they spent time apart so they each had their independence. In fact, it was those aspects that had appealed to them in the first place.

"We'd get it if you tell us," Trish answered, trying to be sympathetic.

"It's over now anyways, time to move on," Stephanie said, cheering herself up. "So do you know of any guys who wouldn't mind going out with a woman with a son?"

"Well, if you're really serious about getting back into dating--"

"I am, I can't keep living like I have a future with Chris because it's painfully obvious that there is no future for us," she said in one quick breath.

"Then my brother-in-law might be a good place to start. He's thirty-two, never been married, no kids. He's a really nice guy, you met him at the wedding last year, remember?"

"Um, I don't think so, Chris and I got pretty wasted that night since my parents were taking care of Finny and we were way into each other," Stephanie said, "I don't think I'd remember anyone if it was on that night."

"Oh yeah, you and Chris making out in the corner, I remember that," Trish laughed, "At least you two didn't make a spectacle of yourselves."

"Neither one of us can hold our liquor anymore. We pretty much stopped drinking when Finny was born so that night we were like gone after two drinks. But if he's your brother-in-law, then I'm sure you know him well enough to recommend him to me."

"Yeah, he's funny and nice, and he's good-looking too, so I think you might hit it off, if you are in fact ready to date, because if you aren't, then don't rush it. I mean, you really are just coming off a very serious relationship that lasted for a long time, and that involves a child."

"I'll be fine Trish, trust me, it's time to move on."

For Chris, nobody told him that the rest of his life would be so mundane. He wanted something catastrophic to happen just so that he could take his mind off of Stephanie and this entire dating thing. He didn't like the idea of it one single bit. He wanted to be with Stephanie and she was the only woman he had ever wanted to marry. For her to be the one suggesting that they go see other people was just enough to rip his heart out, but not enough to see it crushed.

After the gift she had given him, he thought there might be a brief hope. Against his better judgment, he had looked up how much the items had cost, and the two items of memorabilia she had picked up cost her over 400,000 dollars. Stephanie was known to go a little all-out, but this was definitely all-out. He loved his gift, but every time he looked at it, instead of reminding him of one of his favorite bands, if not his favorite band, it reminded him of Stephanie. She had been planning a day for him, and obviously planning a gift for him, and maybe that was enough. Maybe he should've just taken what he could've gotten and forgotten all about the marriage nonsense.

Maybe he still could do that. It wasn't worth it anymore, it wasn't a joke anymore. He had an apartment he hated for the sheer fact that it didn't have her in it. The furniture was fine and the space was nice, but it didn't have Stephanie in it. When he went to bed at night, she wasn't next to him and he couldn't talk about all his frustrations of the day and have her lay her head on his chest and listen as he rambled on. Nobody would listen to him ramble now, not even Finnegan, who would listen for a few moments before wandering off to find something better to do.

The gift had to mean something and maybe she was trying to counter-attack with this dating thing. He had hurt her by leaving so she was hurting him by saying she was going to date someone else. Yeah, that had to be it. If she would take him back, he'd take what he could get again and never bring up marriage. But he was going nuts without her. He could barely stand it anymore, something had to give.

"Daddy," Finnegan asked as he walked over from his coloring table.

"Yeah?"

"Were you sleeping?" Finnegan asked.

"No Finn, I was just thinking really hard."

"About what?" he asked curiously.

"Mommy," Chris answered, figuring that lying wouldn't do any good in this situation. "Come here for a second."

Finnegan climbed on the couch and sat next to Chris, emulating the position that he was in as Chris rested his arm on Finnegan's head playfully. "Daddy, your arm is heavy."

"Thanks," Chris said proudly. "Anyways, you love Mommy right?"

"I love Mommy!" Finnegan explained exuberantly.

"I love her too, she's great huh?"

"Yeah, she's great," Finnegan said, mimicking Chris's words. "She made me grilled cheese yesterday and then we had carrot sticks and Mommy was pretending she was a seal."

"Yeah, Mommy's silly huh?"

"Silly, yeah," Finnegan confirmed. "Do you love Mommy lots and lots, cause I love Mommy this much," Finn told him, holding his arms out. "And Mommy said that she loves me to the end of the…something, but it's a lot."

"Yeah, I love Mommy lots and lots," Chris said. "Do you think that maybe I should try to get back together with Mommy? I mean, I know that she's stubborn and she might not want to get back together with Daddy, but don't you think I should try?"

It was pathetic how he was trying to get a four-year old to convince him to get back together with his girlfriend. But then, it wasn't just any four-year old, it was his son, the product of said relationship with said girlfriend. If anyone should be able to convince him to get back together with her, his mere presence should've done the trick. He looked at his little boy, who was staring straight ahead.

"Yeah," Finnegan nodded resolutely.

"You think that I should then? You think that me and Mommy should be together?"

"Yeah," Finnegan told him, but he probably didn't know what he was talking about. Again, he was a four-year old.

"I should though, I mean, I've been with her for six years, and I've loved her for most of those years. It didn't take me that long to fall in love with her, two months tops because we had been friends beforehand, and the se—uh, never-mind about that. But I can live without getting married right, I mean, look at Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and that other couple whose name escapes me, they aren't married, you know. They've just been together for like twenty years, wouldn't that be a common-law marriage though? I don't know, but still, they never got officially married, so me and Stephanie don't have to get officially married," Chris muttered to himself. "I can live with that, right? I mean, I can live without having that part of her."

"Daddy, you talk too much," Finnegan said as he hopped off the couch and went back to his coloring.

"So do you," Chris teased as he went back to his thinking. "Can I live without the marriage? What if she just doesn't want me though? It's a possibility, not one I'd like to explore, but that's definitely a possibility. Maybe she's been planning on leaving? But then why get me such an expensive and kick-ass gift if she was just going to leave me? Why pretend to be happy? No, that can't be it, she was happy, she said as much. I can't…I need to marry her, I want her to be Stephanie Irvine and that's final. Finn?"

"What?" Finn asked as he looked up.

"I want to marry your Mommy, I can't just be with her as boyfriend and girlfriend, and if she doesn't budge, I can't be with her."

"Can I have some crackers?" Finnegan asked, not even caring what Chris was saying.

"Finn, come on man, I'm having a crisis here!"

"Oh," he said, "I can get the crackers, okay?"

Chris closed his eyes and laughed, "I'm sorry kiddo, your mother is driving me nuts. I love her, you know, so much and she's driving me nuts. I don't know whether I'm coming or going, and she's sending me these mixed signals, I hope that you don't ever have girl troubles."

"Can we go see Mommy?" he asked.

"Yeah, let's go see Mommy, maybe I can break her down," Chris said, standing up.

"Like the Walls of Jericho," Finnegan said proudly.

"Yeah, maybe I should put Mommy in that so she'll come around. You want a piggyback ride?"

"Uh huh," Finnegan said as Chris knelt down to allow his son to climb onto his back. Chris hooked his arms under Finnegan's legs and they were out the door and galloping down the hallway. Finnegan laughed as Chris made a horse sound and went to Stephanie's office, knocking on the door.

"Come in!"

Chris opened the door and Stephanie looked up. Her eyes widened for a moment before calming down enough to smile in Finnegan's direction, but completely ignore Chris's presence. That stung a little bit, but Chris pushed it aside as he set Finnegan down. Stephanie threw up a finger, signaling that she needed a moment as she wrote something down on her paper. Then she looked up and beckoned Finnegan over. He ran over and hugged her.

"What brings you here?" she asked.

Finnegan shrugged and clung a little tighter to Stephanie. "I'm hungry Mommy."

"Well, didn't you and Daddy go get food?" Stephanie asked as Finnegan shook his head against her. "Don't you want to go get food with Daddy, I'm sure he'll let you get anything you want, totally against my wishes, but still…"

"I want to go with you," he mumbled.

"Okay, we can go," she nodded, "let me just finish up with this."

"Hey Steph?" Chris said, actually making his presence known. Stephanie wanted to ignore him, but the tone of his voice was too melodic for her to stop herself from looking up at him. She bit her lip and looked at him, and she knew he could read her, but at this point, she didn't care.

"Yeah?"

"Can we talk?"

"I don't have time tonight, you know that Chris," Stephanie said quickly. She didn't want to talk to Chris. She didn't need to talk to Chris. They had a system and it worked. They didn't need to talk to each other anymore and the both of them could move on. She couldn't keep putting her heart through the wringer while she was around him. She just couldn't go through that.

But she could move on, she knew that she could. She was a strong, independent woman, and she was still only thirty-one years old, which was nothing. She just needed to break free from Chris completely and then she could do it, she could find someone. And Chris wasn't that someone, so somebody else was. She had to believe there was someone perfect out there for her or she might just give up hope. Finnegan had been a fluke, not an indicator. If she and Chris had been more careful, there never would've been a Finnegan and she might've found her soul-mate, not that she resented Finnegan or anything, because she loved him with all her heart.

"Okay then, it doesn't have to be tonight," Chris told her. "I just need to talk to you soon, and we both know that we live close enough to see each other, and we work together, so there's time. How about tomorrow? We can go out for dinner and just talk because I _need_ to talk to you. It's important."

Stephanie cleared her throat a little, like the words she wanted to say were getting stuck in her throat and they really were. She didn't want to have to say the next words because she knew they would probably sound weird on her tongue and Chris probably didn't want to hear them, but she knew that she had to say them anyways. She couldn't make a meeting (she refused to think of it as a date) with Chris the next night for a very specific reason. She tilted her head to the side a little and gazed at him.

"Tomorrow's not good for me," she said quietly.

"Why not? You don't have any meetings on Tuesdays ever, you do work during the day, but the nights are usually free unless in the past month your schedule has changed drastically, and I know you went out with Trish earlier and you'll probably meet for lunch tomorrow, but you never go to dinner with her and so that should mean you're free, so come on, I'm only asking--"

"Chris, I have a date tomorrow night," she put it bluntly. There was no sense in beating around the bush with this one. He would find out sooner or later, and at least this way it was from her mouth and not the exaggerated words of their colleagues.

In all of his thirty-seven years, Chris had never felt pain like this before, and that was saying something. At this very moment, he wished he was in that Hell in a Cell with Paul, or the Elimination Chamber, or every single TLC he had been in. He wished he was fracturing his arm attempting a Shooting Star Press. He wished he was bleeding from the head. Instead, he looked down and took a deep breath.

"Oh," was the only word that came out.

"Yeah, so as you can see, I'm busy," she told him quickly, because she recognized the look on his face. But he was just shocked, she was sure. Once he got over it, he'd go find someone a million times better and more adjusted than she was.

"Yeah, it would seem so," he said, finding his voice. "I've got a match later…so I better head on out of here, you uh…have," he cleared his throat to get the words out, "You have fun tomorrow, you know, good fun, clean…fun."

"Thanks," she told him, wishing that he would get the hell out of here, she needed him out of here.

Chris left the room shortly thereafter and leaned against the wall. He felt like he couldn't breathe, was this feeling in his chest, was that him losing all the air from his body? Or was that his heart constricting to the point of death. He put his hand on his heart and wondered if it was still beating. He felt the pounding against his hand and he wanted to throw up right there, but he couldn't move. He looked both ways to see if there was anyone around, but it was like he couldn't see. He was going to collapse and he needed to sit down, he needed to die is what he needed to do. He needed to just crawl into his bed and expire because this was the worst feeling he had ever felt in his life.

He stumbled his way to his locker room and sat down heavily. He had really lost her now, and that feeling caused his breath to stunt horribly. She would find someone else and she'd be happy and she was probably never happy with him. What could he have done differently? Where could he have changed his ways? Did he not love her enough, did he not show her he loved her? What did he do? He was being punished for someone unknown reason and as he sat there, numb to the world, he wondered if there was anything he could've done to keep her. He wanted nothing more than to keep her.

Stephanie lifted Finnegan up to her desk and sat him in front of her. She hugged him around the waist and just closed her eyes as Finnegan, bored out of his mind and hungry to boot, played with her hair. "Are you sad, Mommy?"

"Uh huh," she told him, still clinging to him.

"Do you want to say the poem to make you feel better?" Finnegan asked.

"No Finny, I don't think that'll cheer Mommy up."

"It cheers me up."

"I know," she told him. "But Mommy is just upset about Daddy. She didn't want to have to tell Daddy the truth because she knew it would hurt him, but in the long run, it is better that he knows and moves on."

"Okay," he said, twisting Stephanie's hair in his fingers.

"Daddy didn't know what he was missing Finny, he didn't know that he deserves better than me. The only reason he stayed with me was because of you," Stephanie said. "Daddy loves you so much that he loved me by extension."

"I love Daddy too," Finnegan told her, wondering why his parents were really sad and why they kept telling him things that he didn't understand. All he wanted was to get something to eat and he had to deal with his crazy parents. "You can go to him."

"No, I can't baby, he's not Mommy's anymore."

"Oh," Finnegan said, and he sounded so much like Chris right there Stephanie wanted to cry.

"He'll understand someday Finny, he'll understand."


	10. Chapter 10

"_You and I are going on a date."_

"_A date?" Stephanie asked as she rested her hand on her stomach. Seven months pregnant and still going strong. _

"_Yeah, when's the last time that we got to go on an actual date?" Chris asked her. "We were dating before this, right? I mean, before we suddenly got domesticated, we went out on the town and had fun like five nights a week right?"_

_She smiled down and scratched her ear, wondering what he was getting at with this date idea, "Yeah, we did all those things, but I also wasn't pregnant."_

"_So what? So we tone down the fun a little bit, we don't go dancing and drinking like we used to, we can still do something fun," he told her, tugging at her shirt. He looked like a giddy, little boy right now and she had to smile at that._

"_I don't know."_

"_Come on, we haven't done anything like this in forever, and I want to go out and just let loose or you know, just go out and do something that we can both enjoy."_

_She studied him for a moment. He looked so excited and like he wanted to go out so badly. She felt badly for that. If she hadn't gotten pregnant, they could go out every night like they used to, and they could drink and party like they used to, and if he wanted, he could dump her. There would be no strings attached if that happened. But the baby growing inside of her said differently. The little boy who still had no name was the magnet which kept Chris tethered to her._

_Her feet were aching and her back was sore, but she didn't want to deny him a night out. She didn't want to be the one that held him back any more than she had already held him back. "I'm not feeling a hundred percent, Chris, but if you want to go out with the guys or something, I have no problem with that."_

_Chris shook his head, "I don't want to go out with the guys, I want to go out with _you_."_

"_Why? I'm no fun, I'm just a fat, pregnant lady," she told him._

"_You might be those things, even if I think you aren't, but you're my girlfriend, and like most guys with hot girlfriends, I want to show you off," he told her, pulling her into his arms. She liked when they were like this, when he made her feel special because sometimes when she closed her eyes, she didn't feel special, and she didn't feel all that needed. The baby inside of her was the miracle, not her. She was just the one lucky enough to carry the miracle._

"_Hot girlfriend?" she asked._

"_You're hot to me, and millions of other guys. You being pregnant doesn't change anything."_

"_Just the entire parenthood thing, right? Since we will be parents in a couple of months."_

"_Yeah, we're going to be parents in a couple months so let me still go out with you when I still only carry the title of your boyfriend, and not your baby daddy," Chris chuckled as he tried to sound ghetto. Stephanie looped her arm through his as she went to his side._

"_Well, I guess if you really want to go out, I can go along with that."_

"_Yes!" _

Stephanie clipped the necklace on around her neck and let it fall against her chest. She studied herself in the mirror before her. She didn't look different and she wondered momentarily if she should look different. She was moving on with her life and it should've been something so monumental that she suddenly should look different. But she didn't, she looked the same as she had the month before when she had a boyfriend and a happy home.

She hadn't been on a date in years, well, that wasn't true. She and Chris had gone out a number of times since they had conceived Finnegan, but they always took a different tone after they had found out about him. They weren't so much dates as just going out and doing something. It was strange how things change after you have a child. She wouldn't say they were any different on the dates, although more subdued, but something in the air had changed.

She was nervous, she knew that. She had only met this guy a couple of times when Trish got married last year, and she was sure one of those times she had been drunk and couldn't remember. So she went in with minimal knowledge. It was also nerve-wracking in the sense that she hadn't been out with anyone other than Chris in over six years. Before she had started dating Chris she hadn't gone out with anyone for about a year. So she hadn't gone out with anyone in the romantic sense besides Chris in over seven years. And seven years ago, she had been twenty-four, and a much different person with a much different outlook on life.

She tucked her hair over her shoulder as she dared to glance up in the mirror again. This time she saw something different, not the woman she saw moments before. She saw someone who was braving something new and different and didn't know the outcome to this new and different thinking. She wasn't sure what tonight would feel like, and she was almost scared that she'd have a good time because maybe it would feel like she was betraying Chris.

But she had given that man everything she could possibly give him, and if it wasn't enough for him, then it wasn't enough for him. She gave herself a smile, forcing all thoughts of her ex-boyfriend out of her mind. If only it were simple enough to just think of Chris as an ex-boyfriend and nothing else.

She turned to Finnegan who was laying on his stomach on the bed in the room, coloring furiously. "Hey Finny?"

"Yeah?" Finnegan asked without looking up from his coloring book.

"How does Mommy look?" she asked.

Finnegan stopped his coloring momentarily and looked up at Stephanie. "You look nice, Mommy."

"Not old?"

"No," he said, going back to his coloring book.

"You're not a very big help," she laughed as she sat next to him. "What are you coloring?"

"A dog," he answered distractedly as he continued to color his picture, putting down the brown crayon and opting for a blue crayon to draw the collar on said dog.

"It's very nice," she told him.

"Thank you," he responded. Stephanie sat there for a second, wishing that Finnegan was about twenty years older and a female. He wasn't exactly the most attentive person to help her get ready for her date. But if it had to be a decision between her baby and anyone else, well, she'd take her baby any day. She ran her hand up and down his back as she leaned over to watch.

"You're very good at that," she complimented.

"Uh huh," he nodded as he continued to color. "Do you want to color too?"

"No, Mommy actually has to go somewhere. I'm meeting someone tonight and we're going to go have dinner and talk."

"I'm going too?" he asked.

"No, you're going to go see Trish for a while and then Daddy's going to come pick you up and you're going to spend the night with him," Stephanie explained.

"Okay," Finnegan answered, not really caring about that at the moment. Stephanie kept rubbing his back, almost wishing that Finnegan would throw a tantrum and tell her that she couldn't go out tonight. She almost wished he would ask her to go back to Chris, look into her eyes with those pleading ones he had and just ask her to go back to daddy.

"Finny, I'm sorry," she whispered to him.

"Why?" he asked, glancing up at her. "Did you do something bad, Mommy?"

"No, not bad," she said. "I'm just sorry that I drove Daddy away, I know that you miss him a lot of the time and I'm just sorry for that."

"Its okay," he shrugged.

She knew that Finnegan didn't understand, but she still appreciated the fact that he wasn't being mean or cursing her out. And she knew he was only four, but still, he could be an angry, little kid. She stood up and went to get her purse and make sure that she was completely ready. She grabbed Finnegan's backpack and his things and then looked to the little boy.

"Finny, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," he said, not getting up from coloring.

"Grab your crayons and your coloring books and let's go," she told him sternly. He got on his knees and grabbed his crayons and closed his coloring book as he jumped off the bed and ran towards Stephanie. She smiled and looked down at him. "Thank you."

"Uh huh," he said as he raced to open the door. He held it open for her, something Chris had taught him a while ago because they were usually loaded with bags while he would race in front of them. They called him their little doorman, jokingly of course, not because he was their slave or anything.

"Thanks Finny," she told him as they walked into the hallway.

Trish was only about fifteen minutes away from the hotel by car and she had put in a CD of Finnegan's favorite music in the player so that he could sing along if he so desired, which he did so desire. Luckily he had gotten Chris's musical talent and not hers because she had heard herself sing and it wasn't pretty at all. When they arrived at Trish's, Trish was happy to greet the little boy.

"Hey there Finn," Trish said, picking him up and hugging him. "You look so handsome, has anyone told you that? You get more handsome every time I see you."

"Okay," he said, grinning at her. Trish laughed and hugged him again.

"You give the best hugs," Trish told him and Finnegan gave her another hug as Stephanie laughed. "I'm going to take your son Stephanie, that's it, I'm so taking him."

"Okay, if you really want him, I guess you can have him. Did you hear that Finny, Trish is going to take you and you're going to live here from now on. I hope you like it here in your new home."

"Mommy!" he said angrily as she laughed.

"I'm kidding Finny," she said, leaning over to kiss him.

"I'll take good care of him while he's here," Trish said. "You look great by the way."

"Thanks."

"You're nervous huh?" Trish asked, sensing it off of her friend.

"Yeah, I am," Stephanie admitted. Then she shrugged. "It's just I haven't been out with someone in a long time, and it's going to be different."

"I know," Trish said. "Are you sure you want to do this, Steph? You can always back out if you're not ready. It's only been a month since you and Chris broke up and you were together for six years before that. I know that if Ron and I broke up, after being together eight years that it'd take me a while to get over it and we don't even have a child."

"If I don't do this now, I'll never do it, and what if Chris finds someone and I'm stuck here on the sidelines, thinking about him and never moving on, I have to do this in the hopes that I can have any semblance of a life from now on."

"If you insist," Trish said.

"What? Now you think this isn't a good idea?" Stephanie asked, challenged really.

Trish sighed and looked at Finnegan for a second before looking back at Stephanie, but she couldn't look her in the eyes. "I don't know, Stephanie. It just doesn't feel right to me, but that's just me, I don't know how you feel. I just don't want you to be doing this for the wrong reasons, and I don't want you to put people through unnecessary hurt."

"Like who?"

"Like Finn, like Chris," Trish answered.

"I'm not hurting Finny," Stephanie protested.

"I know that you're not, I just…it's hard to explain while I'm standing in my doorway," Trish told her.

"I don't have time to listen to this, Trish. I'm just trying to move on with my life. If it ends up not working out, then it ends up not working out, but I have to try. Chris and I are over, he's made that painfully obvious. And so what am I clinging to if he doesn't want me?"

"He said he didn't want you?"

"Not in so many words, but trust me, something happened, or was going to happen and he told me that he couldn't be with me," Stephanie told her, choosing her words carefully around Finnegan. She didn't want him to know anything was terrible between his parents. It was bad enough he had to be couriered around.

"Okay, if you think this is best," Trish said. "I'm just looking out for you, Steph."

"I know," Stephanie said, looking down at her watch. "I've got to go, I'm meeting him in like twenty minutes. Be good Finny."

"Bye Mommy," he said waving.

Stephanie turned to leave and Trish took Finnegan inside and set him down. "What do you want to do Finn?"

"Color," he told her as she led him to the table and helped him set up his coloring tools. She sat there and watched him color for a little bit and thought back to what Shane had said. Shane was right, and she hated admitting that. They had to think of Finnegan in all of this because if it affected anyone, it was this little boy, and Trish would be damned if anything hurt this sweet, little boy.

"Finn?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you want your Daddy to come home?" Finnegan looked up and her and nodded eagerly. Trish smiled at him. "I thought so. You don't like that he's gone huh?"

"I miss him," Finnegan said, his voice a little tinged with sadness. Trish frowned and closed her eyes. "But Mommy said that he can't come home."

"Yeah," Trish said. "Well, you know your Uncle Shane is going to try his hardest to get your daddy to come back home. He really looks out for you, you know? And I'm going to try and help, just because I want you to have your daddy back home because he's always lived there, huh?"

"Yeah, he has an office, and he lets me play in there," Finnegan told her with a smile. "But I want him to come back cause I miss him."

"Yeah," she said, kissing his temple. "I know, Finn, but just remember you always have someone looking out for you."

They spent the next half hour coloring and talking about the different things they were coloring. Finnegan was really good with his animal identification, but she shouldn't be surprised. Stephanie had been reading to him and everything since he was right out of the womb. But those McMahons never did settle for second best at anything, and then bring in Chris and you had a lethal combination for success. But then Finnegan was more than likely set for life so it hardly mattered.

"Hey Finn, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"Chris Jericho," he answered without a hesitation. Trish giggled at the immediacy of his response.

"Who wants you to be Chris Jericho?"

"Mommy," he mumbled.

Trish was about to answer when the doorbell rang and she figured it was Chris coming to pick up Finnegan. She told the little boy to stay there while she went to the door to let Chris in. He looked around expectantly as he stepped inside, like Stephanie would be here or something. She could see the pain in his eyes as clear as day and she wondered why Stephanie couldn't see that. Maybe if she took a moment to look, she would notice.

He looked haggard and older than his years would indicate. It was such a difference from the last time she had seen him a few months ago when they had been in Toronto for one of Chris's media things, a television show or something. He was happy then, and right now, he was anything but happy and Trish could tell that with her eyes closed. The pain was emanating from him as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Where's Finn?"

"He's in the kitchen, we were coloring," Trish said. "Did you want to go get him?"

"Yeah, I did," Chris said as Trish closed the door. "So you…uh, saw Stephanie then?"

"Yeah," she told him. "Why? Was she supposed to leave something here? Besides Finn, that is."

"Oh, no, I was just wondering if you saw her," he asked, his voice a little hoarse and she wondered why. He cleared it a little, "Was she dressed for her…date?"

The word sounded choked to Chris's mind, and he had to choke it out of his own mouth. He knew he was transparent as glass right now, but honestly, what did he have to lose that he hadn't already lost? The only thing worse than losing Stephanie would be losing Finnegan, but that kid was strong and he wasn't going anywhere. Stephanie, on the other hand, he had already lost her and he never thought it would feel like this.

Chris prided himself on his strength and ability to weather any storm. He had gone years and years being able to stand on his own two feet, and that had seemed fine. Then there had been Stephanie, and then Finnegan. And they had been a family. He hadn't been mistaken in thinking that, had he? At some point, the three of them had been a family. It was funny how in just one month the world could turn upside and Chris could no longer stand on his own two feet.

When he realized that he was stumbling through this life now, he came to an important conclusion. Chris couldn't weather every storm, he couldn't weather any storm if Stephanie wasn't near him, wasn't by his side to weather it with him. Somewhere in their six years together, Chris had learned to lean on her, and when his other half had left, he was left with just one foot and he wasn't very good at balancing on it. He could weather any storm with her by his side, but the moment she disappeared, he disappeared.

When she had said she was going out with someone else, it felt like everything was lost, like the last six years had meant nothing to her. He knew that eventually, maybe down the line, he might find someone with whom he felt even better than he had with Stephanie. But that was really a ways away. Not this soon. Or maybe he'd never get over Stephanie. The last six years had brought a joy to Chris's life that he didn't think could ever be duplicated. Their first year together had been fun, just out and out fun, and the last five, since the moment she told him she was pregnant had just been the best things to ever happen to him. Nothing could compare to that.

He was afraid nothing would ever compare to that again.

"Yeah, she was dressed," Trish said, uncomfortable with the subject.

"What was she wearing?" he asked, just trying to sound curious.

"Um, red dress," Trish said, thinking back.

"Was it low-cut or was it like a scoop neck type thing because she has both. The low-cut one she usually wears for special occasions when she wants to look good and a little sexy and not feel so much like someone's mom, but the scoop neck one is when she wants to come off a little more mature," he told her quickly and Trish raised an eyebrow at his intimate knowledge of her wardrobe.

"It was the scoop neck."

Chris sighed in relief; he didn't want anyone to be looking at his girlfriend's cleavage. Or his ex-girlfriend's cleavage. No, Stephanie would always be his, so he didn't care what he thought of her as. Even if she was his ex, a part of her would always belong to him, he was sure of it. If nothing else, he was the father to her child.

"So she obviously paired that with her strappy shoes and probably her gold necklace with the pearl pendant," Chris said.

"Chris?"

"Sorry, I know too much about the things she wears," he said, looking down, embarrassed that he had been grilling her best friend over what she was wearing.

"You love her." Chris blinked back the tears that surfaced in his eyes whenever he thought about how much he loved her. "Chris, it's okay to admit it."

"Not when she's out with some other guy."

"Chris, why are you doing this to yourself?" Trish asked earnestly.

"She doesn't want me, Trish. I've tried…for six years, I've tried, and I constantly fail. She doesn't want me."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Trish said. "Maybe you just need to try harder."

"And what? Fail again?"

"You don't know that."

"I do know that. She's out there right now, with her date," he said, pointing out to the great unknown. "I love her Trish, and I'm not afraid to say it, but I can't…she's out there with some other guy."

"Maybe she doesn't know how much you love her."

"She knows, I've told her a million times."

"Where's the ring?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?" Chris asked her.

"The ring. You proposed so many times, I'd figure that you have a ring to give her," Trish said, then she looked at him. "There's no ring?"

"I always figured she could pick it out. She's like that you know. She likes things to be in her control, and I wanted her to have that control."

"I don't know Chris, maybe she just always wanted the perfect proposal."

"I don't know anything anymore."

"But it never hurts to try."


	11. Chapter 11

She had been sitting there for ten minutes, at least

It was quiet, she knew that much. With a four-year old little boy, there wasn't a whole lot of quiet in her life. And with a thirty-seven year old man who acted like a four-year old boy, well, there was a whole lot of noise in her life. But this was quiet. Her car turned off, the windows rolled up and Stephanie sitting in her red dress and high-heeled shoes; it was a picture, that was for sure. But it was also quiet and for a moment she relished in it.

The quiet was something new for her though, as was what she was about to do. She hadn't been on a date in so long, not without Chris being the one to sit across from her and she didn't know if she was crazy or what. Maybe she was making a futile attempt at moving on with her life that would never pan out and she'd be stuck alone for the rest of her life. That was a sad thought, but she wasn't quite as sure if it was sadder than being in a marriage that only one person wanted to be in.

That was a sad truth. Perhaps she should've talked to Chris somewhere down the line. Maybe that's where she had made her biggest error, but that thought did something that not much else in this world could do, and that was scare her. Of course, her biggest fear was something happening to Finnegan, but this was a different kind of fear. She was afraid to hear what Chris would have to say about them if she told him what she had overheard those many years ago, and what she felt when she heard them, and how she had chosen to live her life afterwards.

She had been terrified he would leave, and if he left, it wouldn't be just her that he was leaving. Yes, it was stupid to think that Chris would leave Finnegan because Chris loved their son so much, but maybe it was every woman's fear that the father of their children will leave them high and dry. She didn't want him to say that yes, he was only proposing because she had bore him a child, no woman ever wants to hear that, so she had held back and held back until Chris could no longer take it.

_He trailed his finger around in circles on her stomach. She lay there, reading a script and making changes every so often. She was taking her new position as the head of creative seriously, and as such she was working nearly around the clock, integrating herself into the position. She had been a writer for a while, but to be the head of both divisions was way different. She had two shows to take care of now and she couldn't let her pregnancy stop her from doing that._

_Chris, on the other hand, did not have anything to do and so he was lying down near her stomach and trailing his finger around the slight bulge created by her growing mass in the form of their baby. She was just over four-and-a-half months pregnant and starting to show a little bit more, at least to the knowing eye, and Chris was certainly a knowing eye. Her t-shirt was bunched up right under her breasts and she could feel his warm breath on her stomach._

"_Are you going to continue doing that all afternoon?" she asked as she peeked over the top of her script._

"_Yeah, I think so," he told her._

"_It tickles," she replied. "And you keep doing it and I'm trying to review the script, I need to fax it out to the people who need it."_

"_Who cares about the rookies, you should send them out there like they did to me way back in the day. It's a sink or swim kind of business, Steph, and they should learn how to swim on their own."_

"_Like my dad is going to allow that to happen. He trusts you, Chris, well, sort of, he's not too crazy about you knocking me up," she laughed under her breath._

"_Yeah, I know, I think that all the losses I've been having have been an indicator to that," he said, rolling his eyes. _

"_He'll get over it soon," she told him. "He's just a little bit upset that you impregnated me and we're not married or engaged, not that I personally need any of those things." She took a moment to glance at him and see if he had any reaction to those two things, but he seemed indifferent and she sighed and went back to her script. "It could be worse, he could've fired you."_

"_Don't joke," he said, swirling his finger so it got closer and closer to her belly button. "This wasn't my intention, you know."_

"_You don't think I don't know that," she responded. "Chris, we both know that this wasn't planned and we both accepted that and the consequences that come along with that. I wasn't going to consider an abortion or adoption or any of those other avenues, and everyone is just going to have to accept that."_

"_I know that," said Chris. He rested his hand on top of her stomach. "I don't think I could've lived with myself if you had had an abortion."_

"_It wasn't an option" she told him, going back to her script. "So you really are just going to lie there and touch my stomach all afternoon, aren't you?"_

"_Do you think it's a boy or a girl?"_

"_I don't know," responded Stephanie. "All I know is that it's either one or the other, and as long as its one of the two, and it's healthy, then I'm totally cool with that."_

"_You don't even have a tiny preference?" _

"_No, I don't," she told him, and gave him a look that said she didn't. "Now can I please get back to the script before your antics get the both of us fired and then we'll have no jobs and we'll loaf around and nothing will ever get done ever?"_

_Stephanie went back to looking at the script and it was quiet for a few minutes before she felt Chris's finger circling her stomach again. She glanced down at him and smiled to herself, unbeknownst to him as he kept his eyes trained on the bulge of her stomach. She reached down with her free hand and ran her hands through his long, blond hair. She could get used to moments like this._

The moments had ended for Stephanie, and she had to find new moments. With a resolve that only came from being a McMahon, she got out of the car and walked into the restaurant, asking for the reservation. The hostess told her that the rest of her party had already arrived and she smiled and nodded as was appropriate. If there was anything Stephanie was good at, it was acting the part. The hostess led her to a table and she saw a man standing up.

He didn't look like Chris. So help her God, that was the first thing that she thought of when she saw him. She quickly blasted that thought from her mind, but it kept coming back. But then, nobody looked like Chris. Nobody could ever have those same eyes and that lazy smile of his that made your heart flutter and your knees weaken. And nobody would ever have Chris's soft, silky hair that she was still trying to convince…no, sorry, that she _had_ been trying to convince him to grow back just so that she could run her hands through it again.

Craig was tall, taller than Chris, and he had a dark hair, almost black, and it was short and very business-like. He was wearing a nicely tailored suit which she appreciated, and he had brown eyes, almost hazel. He smiled at her and she smiled back, which was how she would play the part and shook his hand.

"Stephanie, right?"

"And you're Craig," she said as he pulled her chair out for her. Chris never pulled her chair out for her. But that was only because she told him that she didn't need him to do that for her. But she thought it was sweet on the first date. She sat down and he went over to sit down.

"Yeah, I remember we met briefly last year at the rehearsal dinner for Trish's wedding," he told her.

"Yeah, I remember meeting you that night, if only for a few seconds since I was one of the bridesmaids and you were the--"

"Best man," he finished for her. "I don't remember if we talked at the reception, though…"

"It was a crazy night that I really don't remember," Stephanie said with a laugh, feeling a little more at ease with this man since they at least had Trish in common. "I was just a tiny bit drunk…or a lot drunk, but I hardly ever have that opportunity to get drunk and I'd never do it around my son, so you know, three sheets to the wind that night."

"Yeah, Trish mentioned that you have a son, how old is he?"

"He's four, he's…my everything," Stephanie said, grinning. If there was one topic she loved to talk about, it was her son.

"That's great, and you work for your family, WWE right?"

"Yeah, I'm the head of creative actually," she told him, "And what do you do?"

"I'm a Junior VP of a marketing firm here in Toronto, been with the company for about seven years now, it's not fun or glamorous, but it pays the bills and it can be pretty fulfilling, but I'm sure your job is about a million times better than mine."

"Well, it has its boring moments," Stephanie told him. A Junior VP, she thought to herself that this was the type of man her father envisioned her with when she was still in college. Once she had entered WWE though, her father knew she was destined for a wrestler. Weird how she came back to what he originally wanted.

"But you get to be on television and everything like that."

"When I want," she shrugged. "You get over it, no, that's a lie, you never get over it, it's a blast."

"Now I'm jealous," he said good-naturedly. "Does your son travel with you?"

"Yes, he does," Stephanie answered. "I don't think I could bear to leave him behind, although when he starts kindergarten next year, he's going to have to stay with his grandma on Mondays, which is going to probably hurt me more than it'll hurt him."

"Sounds like you love him a lot."

"Understatement, he's the light of my life and has been since the minute he was born," Stephanie answered. "He's the sweetest, most thoughtful, smart little boy you could ever want to meet. I'm sorry, I sound like I'm gushing."

"No, he's your kid, it's natural, I like hearing about it anyways. I don't have any kids, but I've always liked them. What's his name?"

"Finnegan, I call him Finny though."

"Wow, that's a very bold name."

"Yeah, it was…I heard the name one day on the television and it was just, it caught me and I wanted to name him that. He has a regular name for a middle name though, we didn't want to saddle him with a truly crazy name," she laughed.

"What's his middle name?"

"His full name is Finnegan Aaron Irvine," Stephanie said.

"Oh, Irvine, so he has his…father's last name?" Craig asked curiously.

"Yeah," Stephanie said, "We thought it best if he took his last name and not mine. We were never married or anything."

"Trish mentioned you were just coming off a serious relationship, that had to be hard. I'm kind of coming off one as well. I was with my girlfriend for just about two years and then we broke up when she had to move to Sweden for business. It was rough, but it was the right thing to do."

"I know how that goes," Stephanie said. "Sometimes, it's just the right thing to do."

After that, it became easier to speak with him. He ended up being a really interesting, really nice guy. Stephanie even found herself enjoying herself. Now could she say that she didn't think about Chris for a few minutes? No, she couldn't say that. Chris was always going to be in the back of her mind, no matter how hard she tried. Then when she brought out a picture of Finnegan to show Craig, she was faced with a couple pictures of Chris, and there he was again. She wasn't just going to escape him.

Yet, this date had been a lot easier than she had thought it was going to be. Once she and Craig got into the groove, she found that she could do this, she could really do this. If it came to it, she could date some other guy that wasn't Chris. Was it necessarily going to be Craig, no, but it could be anyone that wasn't Chris. She thought it would be harder, but maybe it just meant that she and Chris weren't meant to be.

As she was back in her car later that evening, it washed over her again that she wasn't with Chris. Why it decided to pop in and out of her head at random, she had no idea. But now that the date was over and she had let Craig kiss her cheek, the guilt was suddenly flooding into her veins. This horrible guilt like she had done something wrong. Her fingers itched to call Chris on his cell phone and apologize for cheating on him. But then she would remember herself, and the fact that she and Chris were not together anymore, and it brought a pain to her chest that emulated getting pricked with a needle. It wasn't a pain that she couldn't withstand, but it was a constant pain that just pricked her over and over again.

She felt guilty for having a good time with a man that wasn't Chris, and she felt guilty for allowing herself to have a good time. It's funny the things we blame ourselves for. Even when we've done nothing wrong, the implication that someone else might be hurt by our actions was enough to make that pricking more of a stabbing feeling. She clutched her stomach as she sat in her car, a perfect way to bookend her date.

She could still feel Chris's finger twirling its way towards the center of her stomach, and she could still feel the way that he would lean his chin on her shoulder when he was thinking. Chris had burned his way into her body's memory. His skin had burned into hers, leaving a lasting impression that she couldn't get rid of just yet, and since his body had become something of one with hers, she had betrayed him.

But she had had a good time regardless. And that hurt her because she knew it hurt Chris. But they had to let this go. She had to let him go and this was the first step. She would just have to get over the memories she had of Chris and their time together. She knew it was easier said than done, but it was a necessary consequence. She was at least glad to know that she could have a good time with someone other than Chris, it was a comfort to know that she probably wouldn't end up alone. She smiled at that and pushed the guilt out of her brain for a little while. She shouldn't feel guilty for moving on with her life. She should be proud that she had been able to do this tonight. She had done what she thought was impossible. She should be patting herself on the back for that.

She could get over Chris, she was already doing so by taking this first step. Yes, she could do this, she could really find her soul-mate because after all this time, and all this confusion in her life, maybe Chris wasn't the one after all. Maybe he never had been and Finnegan had just been the glue to tie it all together. Maybe she and Chris had just hung on too long, and now was her time to really find the true person she was meant to be with. She could find her true soul-mate and have many moments to come.

_They were lying in bed. Stephanie was lying down with a script in her hand. She was holding it over her head and reading it over. In her absence she had left her right-hand man in charge, but she wanted to see first-hand the kind of work that he was doing. She felt a squirming on her stomach and she looked down._

_The two-day old Finnegan was curled up on her stomach, a position that was still familiar to him after only being born two days before. He was lying on his stomach on Stephanie's stomach, which was warm and inviting to the little boy. Chris was lying down there face to face with his son. He marveled at the little boy, clad only in a t-shirt and a diaper, a pacifier in his tiny mouth, sucking away at it as his hands were curled up in little fists._

"_Are you just going to lie there all afternoon staring at him?" she asked. _

"_Yeah, I am," Chris said. "Look at him, just look at him."_

"_I see him," she said, "and feel him, he's warm on my stomach, he's like my own personal blanket."_

"_He's all curled up," Chris said, running his finger over Finnegan's foot. "But man, check out that dark hair."_

"_It could lighten up," she answered, putting down the script for a second. "I think he misses being inside me, he's probably all cold."_

"_He'll get used to it," Chris said, running his finger over her stomach. "Hard to believe he was in there only two days ago huh?"_

"_Yeah, it is," she answered, reaching down to softly caress Finnegan's head. "Hard to believe I got him out of me just two days ago. Hey there Finny, you're awfully cute."_

"_He's ours," Chris said, looking up at her. "He's all ours."_

"_I know," she said, reaching out to run her fingers through his hair._

She just wished the old moments hadn't been so good.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Thanks to all those who review, I hope that you're enjoying the story, and please keep the reviews coming as this is shaping up to be one of my favorite stories ever that I've written. :)

Resolve.

It's a two-syllable word, with an infinite number of meanings to people. But for Chris, it was taking on a specific meaning. After he had spoken to Trish a couple days ago, he had been building up his resolve. He had to in order to psych himself up for what he wanted to do. When Trish had asked where the ring was, he had been a little bit taken aback by that. It wasn't an accusation per se, but it certainly wasn't something that he should take lightly. He had always figured that Stephanie could pick out her own ring and he figured that she would like that if and when she said yes.

Stephanie liked to be in control, not so much that she had to have everything perfect every moment of every day, no, that wasn't it at all. He recalled when they were dating and she loved to be spontaneous, so it wasn't an obsessive kind of control, she just liked to be able to input her own opinions into the situation and he always figured, if he could just get her to say yes, then she could also say what kind of ring she wanted. He thought it was a fair idea.

But maybe he had been wrong all this time. Maybe he had been wrong in thinking that Stephanie wanted to be in control. The thought was a little foreign to his brain, but why not. He had worked up his resolve to get Stephanie back at all costs. He didn't like the thought that she could be another man's and he didn't like the thought of being apart from her, so he was going to do it, he was going to try again because the second he stopped trying was the second that he stopped living.

He resolved himself to do it this time, to get her to say yes. He would think up the perfect proposal and he would do it all for her. He would give it another shot because without Stephanie, nothing seemed vivid anymore. His life was drab and he had no initiative to make it any better. Finnegan was the only thing that made him happy and he knew that he couldn't go out with another woman just to make Stephanie jealous. He wasn't that type of guy.

Thinking about her on a date had just lighted a fire underneath him that was still burning brightly. If his temper had risen any more that night, he would've gone through every restaurant in the greater Toronto area looking for them just so he could beat this guy she was going out with into a pulp. He wanted to pulverize the man who dared think that he could have Stephanie McMahon. She was his, and she was always going to be his. There was no other woman in the world that could be his because she was it for him. It had started when they started dating and had been cemented when they had Finnegan.

Speaking of the little boy, Chris looked to see Finnegan watching television in Chris's bedroom, the only television in this bare apartment. Chris hadn't gotten around to decorating it beyond the bare bones. The only room that was remotely decorated was Finnegan's and that was because his son came first and he wanted him to feel home when he stayed here, like he was this weekend. He got the whole weekend this time.

"Finn, what are you watching?"

"Cartoons," Finnegan answered.

"Hey kiddo, do you want to talk to me for a while?" Chris asked.

"Why Daddy?" Finnegan asked.

"Because Daddy needs your advice."

"What's that?" he asked.

"Well if you got your butt out here, then I'd be able to tell you," Chris joked. Finnegan turned off the television and bounded into the common room. He tilted his head as he looked at Chris. "Hey, long time no see."

"Daddy, I was just in the next room," Finnegan said, scrunching up his nose.

"I know, but I need to talk to you about Mommy," Chris explained. This caused Finnegan to light up a little bit, but he usually did when speaking about Stephanie. Finnegan liked to talk about her, which pleased Stephanie because she liked to be the center of attention anyways.

"Okay," he said, climbing up on the couch. "What about Mommy?"

"Well," Chris said, sitting down next to him. "You understand that Mommy and I aren't together right now, right?"

"You're broken up," he said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, we're broken up, but Daddy is going to tell you something now that you have to keep a secret from Mommy okay, it'll have to be our little secret, is that okay with you? Can you keep a secret? Because I'm trusting you with a pretty big secret."

"I can keep a secret!" he declared proudly. "I can keep lots of secrets."

"Good, because this is a very big one," Chris said, making it sound a little ominous.

"Okay Daddy," Finnegan whispered excitedly, leaning a little closer to Chris in order to hear this big secret that his daddy had to tell him.

"Well, I'm going to ask Mommy to marry me, but you can't tell her because I want it to be a surprise, and I want you to help me," Chris said. "Do you want to help me with Mommy?"

"Yeah, I want to help," Finnegan answered, feeling self-important. "I can help, Daddy!"

"Great, I love your mommy, Finn. You know, and this will probably bore you, but hear me out," Chris said, glad that he could talk to his son about this stuff. Sure, maybe an adult could listen too, but it was different with Finnegan. "Mommy and I were going out for about a year, and then we found out about you, and I'm not going to lie, I was scared."

"You were scared of me?" Finnegan asked in awe, eyes wide. "But Daddy, you're not afraid of anything…"

"I know, but I was afraid of you when I first heard about you."

"But I'm not scary," he explained with a small shrug.

"Well I know that now," Chris said, poking him in the stomach a little bit. "But when I first found out you were in Mommy's tummy, well, it was very scary. But Mommy and I were very happy when we had you, we both love you a lot."

"I love you," he echoed. "Can I go watch TV now?"

"Yeah, you can go watch TV now," Chris said, knowing that Finnegan was probably bored hearing about his problems.

He thought back to his resolve. Then he thought back to Stephanie's date. He thought briefly to his first date with Stephanie. They had gone out to dinner and then dancing, nothing special, they had just done whatever seemed fun at the moment. He loved that about Stephanie, she was very of-the-moment. She could just go out and say, "What the hell," and do anything and everything. She loved to just go with the flow and that probably made her pregnancy easier, but then he thought about that date she had had.

What if she had just gone with the flow? What if she had gone with the flow too far? What if she had fun? That was a horrible thought. There was a distinct possibility that she had a good time with this guy. She had fun with him on their first date. What if she did the same thing? What if going with the flow meant having a lot of fun? He knew she'd never sleep with the guy on the first date. He hadn't even broken into the Holy Grail that was Stephanie for at least three weeks after their first date. There was no way she'd do that, she didn't go with the flow that much.

His resolve was breaking. If she had a good time on her date, there was no telling how many more she'd go on. What if this was just the beginning? Okay, the resolve was definitely breaking now. If she was happy, who was he to curb that happiness by tying her down? Maybe she was happy being single again. He bit his lip at that and looked to a picture he had of her sitting on his end table. She had Finnegan in a piggyback ride as they turned towards the camera. If she was happy now, should he be happy for her?

His resolve was disappearing quickly.

It was about a week later when Chris was lying on his couch. He didn't have anything to do that day, and Connecticut was pretty isolated from most of his wrestling buddies. He didn't feel like doing much of anything. Over the past week, he had lost any and all resolve that he had. He had guessed and second-guessed himself more times than at any point in Stephanie's pregnancy, when he had pretty much questioned how he'd be a father each and every day. He let out his breath slowly as he continued to stare at the ceiling.

He hated this apartment, he thought to himself. He wanted to go home to his house. This apartment was small. Not what he was used to. His house, yes it was still his house, it was sprawling and large. It sat on over four acres of land and it was huge by anyone's standards. But it was his house and to be cramped in here after living there for the past five years, it was just the wrong kind of adjustment. He sighed, he just wanted to go home and work in his office while Finnegan watched a DVD, or cook dinner with Stephanie sitting on the counter, bouncing off storyline ideas at him. He just wanted to go home and be with his family.

The phone rang and he groaned. He didn't want to talk to anybody. He wanted to take a nap, or crawl under a rock and die. That's what he wanted to do. What did he have left if he lost Stephanie and their future? He only had Finnegan, but he wanted both of them. He needed both of them. It just wasn't fair that he couldn't have both of them. The phone kept ringing and he reluctantly reached back to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey Chris, its Steph."

"Steph?" Chris asked. "What's up?" He didn't expect her to call him…pretty much for the rest of their lives. They had been using Shane or Linda as the go-between when they wanted to trade-off Finnegan. Chris wasn't crazy about the decision to do that, but what choice did he have in it all? "Is everything okay?"

"I'm at the hospital and--"

"Oh my God, are you okay?" Chris asked, sitting up immediately. If something was wrong with Stephanie, or if she was hurt or something, or sick…he'd never live. Oh God, if she was sick, he would find the best doctors in the world to help her, he would hunt for the cure if she was sick. "Stephanie, are you okay, did something happen to you?"

"No, Chris, it's not me okay, but before I tell you, you have to let me finish before you say anything okay?"

"Are you pregnant?" he asked.

"No, I'm not pregnant," she said quickly. "It's Finny, he--"

Chris's heart seemed to skip several beats at that and his palms were instantly clammy. His breath was stunted as he struggled to take in air. If something had happened to Finnegan, then Chris would surely just keel over right there. Finnegan was his world, his best friend and everything to him. If his son was hurt…or worse, that would be the absolute end of him. That would be the end of him as he knew it. There was no way that he could go on without his son, none.

"Stephanie, what's wrong with Finn? Is he hurt? Stephanie, please, don't tell me something happened."

"Chris!" she said sharply. "I told you that you had to not say anything until I was finished. Finn seems to have broken his finger in preschool. They called me at work and I'm with him at the hospital. He just said that his hand hurts so we're here, otherwise he's okay."

"I'll be down there in ten minutes," Chris said, already hanging up the phone and grabbing his car keys.

Stephanie was sitting in the emergency room, flipping through a magazine, bored out of her mind when Chris burst through the doors. He was about to go postal when Stephanie saw him and waved him over. He sat down next to her, out of breath and with his jacket half off of his body. She chuckled a little and set her magazine down.

"Where is he?"

"Dumbasses won't let me come with them to x-ray, which is still where he's at right now," Stephanie said, glancing in frustration at the door where Finnegan had disappeared to. "I'm so pissed that they wouldn't let me go back there, but you know how Finny is, brave until the end, telling me that it's going to be okay. I think I caught the x-ray technician snickering as my four-year old had to calm me down. I almost had a tantrum."

"It's not cool that our son has less tantrums than you do, and you're twenty-six years older than he is," Chris told her. She gave him a less-than-happy look and he smiled impishly at her. "So tell me exactly what happened."

"Well, I was working and they called and said that Finny had hurt himself and that I should come pick him up. Apparently he was just running around and he tripped and he put his hands out in front of him to catch his fall and bam, hurt himself. It's such a little boy thing to do."

"Yeah, I broke my elbow when I was six years old," Chris nodded. "With how active Finn is, I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner."

"Well, he did sprain his ankle when you were teaching him to play hockey," Stephanie commented. "I'm sorry I worried you over the phone, but I didn't think that immediately saying, 'Finny's in the hospital, but he's okay,' would've been a good thing either."

"Its okay, I was just worried."

"So was I, I still am, you never want your kid to be hurt, least of all when you weren't there to see it," Stephanie said with a sigh. "He probably had his shoelaces untied, he always has his shoelaces untied and he knows how to tie them, but he's always running around and not watching where he's going and then he falls and this happens. And I have a bad feeling this is not the first time we're going to be in an emergency room with him, if he's anything like you, he's going be in here a lot."

Chris smirked. "We can't help it. The Irvine men are active men."

She shook her head, "Yeah, I just wish he was done with right now, stupid ass doctors and x-ray people making me wait here. He's four years old Chris, four, he needs his Mommy!"

"He's smart," he said. They sat there in silence for a little while. "So…uh…how was…your, you know…your date?"

Stephanie turned her head towards him. He was staring straight ahead and not looking at her. She had a good time with Craig, she was about to tell him that when she looked at him. He looked like he didn't really want to hear it, but needed to hear it. After six years, she could read Chris and his emotions. He was hurting and she felt terrible for inflicting that look on his face. He thought this might make her happy and he also did it because he wanted to know. She couldn't do that to him.

Then she started to really study Chris and came to a startling realization. She hadn't had a good time on this date. She had been going through the motions. How could she have had a good time without Chris? She was just going through the motions of having a good time because Chris wasn't there to make fun of what she ordered, or let her eat off his plate, or save all the croutons from his salad so she could have them, and she had been kidding herself because the only reason she had a good time was because it gave her a respite from the loneliness that had settled over her since Chris's departure.

"He ordered the same thing as me."

Chris didn't need to hear anything else. That was all he needed to hear. He looked at her, and she was looking down, but he knew. Stephanie always ate off his plate, and liked that she could choose between her dinner and his always superior dinner. If the other guy ordered the same thing, she was stuck. He always saved her his croutons too, and he'd always order dessert knowing that she would want a spoon to eat it. He looked at her again and just knew what she was trying to say and it warmed his heart completely.

"Let me guess, grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and spinach."

"I'm not that predictable," she said softly under her breath. He shook his head and kept staring at her.

She gave him a small smile and he gave her one back as the doctor came out to talk to them about what happened to Finnegan. The doctor explained that the x-rays had shown that Finnegan had a small fracture in his hand and they were putting a cast on it now and he would have to have it for the next three weeks. Stephanie nodded and listened.

Chris, however, was just staring at Stephanie. She hadn't had a good time. He couldn't help but smile as he thought that she had a bad time. He didn't want her to have a bad time or anything because he loved her, but he didn't want her having a good time with a guy that wasn't him. Not that she couldn't have fun with other people, but on a date, no way, he wanted her to be happy with him and him alone in that respect.

Before he got caught up in his thoughts, Finnegan was led out into the waiting room with his arm in a light blue cast. Stephanie knelt down as he came over to hug her. "Oh, my Finny is broken."

"They let me pick out a color, Mommy!" Finnegan told her excitedly. "I picked blue!"

"I can see that," she said. "I'm going to go talk to the doctor for a second, but go show that to Daddy, he'll be very impressed with how brave you were."

"Daddy, I didn't cry," Finnegan told him as he went over to Chris. "And Mommy said that was very brave."

"It is, not crying, you're such a tough guy," Chris said. "You know, you can have all your friends sign this."

"Really? Why?"

"Because it's cool and it makes you look cool, I'll even sign it when we go home. Then you can have Chris Jericho's signature," he winked. "And I'm totally jealous that you broke your hand at four, I only broke my elbow at six, you beat me."

"I did?"

"Yeah, you did."

"Oh come on you two, why don't we go for pizza Finny, since you were brave and I'm very proud that you were so brave and didn't cry or anything."

"Pizza, cool!" Finnegan said as he starting running towards the door.

"I guess he's okay," Stephanie said as she followed. "You coming?"

"Yeah, I'm coming."

Stephanie walked ahead of him, and if just for one more night he could feel like they were a family, he'd take it. He followed her out, watching her walk as they walked to the car, promising to come back for his car. She had a bad time on her date, she had told him directly. She didn't have fun with whatever his name was. There was still hope.

His resolve was back.


	13. Chapter 13

"_Well, well, well, if it isn't my old friend, Chris Irvine."_

_Chris groaned silently, but was actually happy for the distraction. Just seventeen hours earlier, Stephanie had told him that he was going to be a father. Seventeen hours later, he still hadn't quite wrapped his mind around the concept. It was just something you didn't expect your girlfriend to tell you before you go to bed. Or you expect the addendum, "but it was a false alarm." But Stephanie had it confirmed and appointments set up and this was just overwhelming._

"_What are you doing here, Rocky?" _

"_That's the way you greet me, wow, and I thought we were friends, Irvine. I'm here to talk to Vince about the upcoming WrestleMania. If you weren't sitting on your lazy ass, you'd know about it. How don't you know about it seeing as how you're banging the boss's daughter?"_

"_Don't bring her up okay?" Chris mumbled as he looked down again._

"_What? You and Stephanie broke up?" Rocky asked, turning off his usual "The Rock" persona and turning back into Dwayne Johnson. "Last time I talked to you, you said the two of you were having tons of fun, those were your words, right?"_

"_Yeah, and let's just say the tons of fun we were having was a little too fun and not safe enough," Chris said, being purposefully vague. "But you're coming back for WrestleMania, huh?"_

"_Oh yeah, like the diversion's going to distract me," Rocky said, rolling his eyes. "If you have something that's bothering you, we're friends Irvine, or at least I was under that impression since I carried your ass to the Undisputed Championship last year. Well, I carried your ass and you were doing Stephanie, who insisted that you win. So come on, did you two break up?"_

"_Nope."_

"_So then you had a fight? The feisty Stephanie McMahon got the better of you and you're here sulking like a little kid."_

"_She's pregnant," Chris said simply and Rocky peered over his sunglasses to his friend. _

"_She's…what?"_

"_Pregnant, she told me last night. She's more than two months pregnant and well, seeing as how she's _my_ girlfriend, the baby is mine. She's having my baby."_

"_Oh wow," Rocky said, subdued, and that almost made Chris laugh because in the entire time he had known Rocky, he had never been subdued ever. He had made a lot of friends in this business, but none quite like Rock and he admired him as a man as a performer._

"_Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction too," Chris said with a mirthless laugh. "You know, you always hear about those guys who knock up their girlfriends and then run, and I always thought they should step up and take responsibility. I mean, it's happened in this business, some wrestler sleeps with a ring-rat, he knocks her up and then never sees the kid. But man, my first instinct was to get the hell out of there, just run. Now I know how those guys feel."_

"_Well--"_

"_No, not well, no well. I shouldn't have thought that. I mean, I shouldn't be thinking about quitting and changing my name and never seeing Stephanie again because she's pregnant. That's not me, that's never been me."_

"_You've also never knocked someone up before, so how would you know?"_

"_True," Chris shrugged. "Still, that's not the kind of guy I am."_

"_But did you run away? Did you leave her last night after she told you?"_

"_No, I told her that everything was going to be okay, that we'd be okay," he said._

"_So look, you aren't that guy," he told Chris. "You aren't the guy that runs away or doesn't take responsibility. You didn't leave her."_

"_Her dad is going to kill me. Vince is going to kill me," Chris said. "Steph and I aren't married, not even engaged or anything. And I'm not going to marry her out of necessity."_

_Rocky chuckled. "Yeah, Vince is going to kill you…I can't believe you knocked up the boss's daughter."_

"_Not helping Rocky," Chris grumbled. "I don't know how we're going to tell her parents…or my parents for that matter. I don't even know what to do. Stephanie lives in Connecticut and I live in Florida, and we don't even see each other on the weekends. I don't want to half-ass being a dad."_

"_None of us do," Rocky responded, thinking about his own daughter. "You just have to do what you have to do. You've already stepped up and told her that you're going to be there, and if you aren't, you'll have about fifty wrestlers on your ass ready to beat you up because we all like Stephanie."_

"_I'll be fired before that could happen," Chris countered._

"_Yeah, but in the end, you get a kid out of it…a kid changes you."_

"_So I've heard…at least it's with Stephanie, who is just about the most awesome chick I've ever met in my entire life…at least it's with her."_

"_See, every cloud has a silver lining."_

When Rock walked down a hallway, you looked. You can't help it, he has a presence, and people who have a presence command attention. So when Raw took a turn to Los Angeles, Rock's new realm, he had to stop by to visit old acquaintances and catch up with old friends. And he still had an aura about him as he walked backstage, looking for one Chris Jericho. They had made plans to go out to dinner tonight and he decided to just hang out at the show beforehand.

He spotted Stephanie up ahead of him walking out of a door and not knowing anything of their break-up, he figured that she would have the best knowledge of where Chris was at the moment. He smiled as he walked up to her. "Stephanie McMahon, it's always such a pleasure to see you."

She turned to him and smirked, "What, no witty comment, no veiled insult, you're slipping, Dwayne."

"For my favorite brunette, never," he joked. "So where's that boyfriend of yours? We are supposed to go out to dinner and catch up, guys only, and I can't find his ass anywhere. I figured if anyone was going to know where he's at, you would. I figured that I could come and watch him get his ass kicked like usual."

"I don't know where he is," said Stephanie, her tone becoming sober.

"Figures," he said.

"No, not figures, we broke up," she told him plainly.

Rock chuckled loudly, "Okay, joke's on me right. You and Chris breaking up, that's just not possible. You two have been together for years…ahh, this is one of your jokes because I called last month with that message calling you a slut. Stephanie, how many times do I have to tell you, it's a compliment, I think so highly of you that I need to insult you?"

"Likely story," she told him with a glare. "But as for Chris and I, we broke up last month, and that's the truth because I said so."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, are you joking with The Rock?"

"Still referring to yourself in the third person I see," she told him plainly. The thing with Stephanie and Rocky was that they had a very banter-filled relationship. Chris and Rock had pretty much instantly hit it off when he entered the company, both of them being ego-driven maniacs, it was easy to see the connection. When Chris had started dating Stephanie, she had to deal with Rocky more often, which created an interesting dynamic between the two.

"Excuse me if I'm a little shocked since you two have been together for a really long time, not to mention you have a kid together."

"We just wanted different things," she said quickly, as she was still trying to believe that one herself. "I've actually got some things to do, but I'm sure if you look around, you'll find Chris."

"Yeah, thanks," he said, watching as he walked away.

Rock stood there for a second before pushing his sunglasses up his nose and deciding to find Chris and slap him upside the head. He probably deserved it for letting Stephanie go. Rock was no fool, he knew how well Chris and Stephanie went together and for Chris to let this happen, well he was a bigger idiot than even Rock had thought he was. He walked down the hallway until he came to the door with "Chris Jericho" written on it and figured if Chris was around, it was going to be here. He knocked loudly on the door.

"Come in!"

Rocky walked in and saw Chris taping up his wrists on the couch. Chris looked up and looked shocked for a minute. "I thought we were meeting up later."

"I decided to come hang out here and then I find out that you and Stephanie are broken up. You and _Stephanie_ are broken up. What the hell is that about?"

"What you do mean what the hell is that about?" Chris asked. "Look, I don't want to discuss this before my match. After my match, fine, at dinner, fine, but not before. I need to concentrate and thinking about Stephanie is not going to do that."

"Fine, but this isn't over."

"Nothing ever is with you, Rocky," Chris said, rolling his eyes as he continued to tape up his wrists, knowing that Rocky was looking at him with a disapproving look. "Will you stop that?"

"What? Looking at the idiot who breaks up with his girlfriend of six years?"

"Look, I didn't want to break up with her, but I asked her to marry me…again, and she refused…again, and I can't live like that anymore. You know how long I've wanted to marry her, I still do, but she doesn't want to and I can't do anything about that."

"Bullshit," Rocky told him. "You know that there's shit you can do about that, you just aren't. And don't tell me that you aren't thinking about doing something."

"Fine," he conceded. "I was thinking about doing something, giving her the perfect proposal or something. But she's said no for the past five years, I hardly think another proposal is going to do the trick. I think…I'm starting to think that it may actually be over for us."

"You're kidding me with this, right?"

"Well tell me what I'm supposed to do," Chris snapped. "Tell me how I can convince someone who has been saying no to me for the past five years that she wants to marry me. I don't know how. I just don't know how to do it. Maybe I should realize that if she's been telling me no for half a decade, it's just never going to happen."

"Wow, I never thought you of all people would give up," Rocky told him in disgust. "Of all the people in the world, I never though Chris fucking Irvine would be the one to just throw in the towel."

"Oh get off it, Rocky."

"I go away to New Zealand for two months to film a movie and I come back and find you in complete chaos, I'm sorry if I'm a little confused here. Wasn't it just two months ago that you came down to Florida with Stephanie and Stephanie redux and you were acting all coupley to the point where I was going to puke?"

"This fight has been brewing between Stephanie and I for a long time."

"And yet, this time you break up."

"Yeah, it got to be too much."

"You're an asshole."

"_I'm_ the asshole?" he scoffed. "I'm just the guy who wants to marry his girlfriend, the mother of his child. Excuse me for wanting that, I was obviously mistaken."

"Not that you jackass," Rocky told him. "You're just so willing to roll over, aren't you? You're just so willing to roll over and let this thing go through. You aren't fighting for her, you aren't going after her."

"Tell me why I should," he challenged.

"You know what, five years ago, you told me that you wanted to run away from Stephanie when she told you she was having a baby. I told you that you didn't run away, that you stood up for your responsibility, that you acted like a man. But now? I was wrong, you aren't a man, you are that coward. You _are_ running away."

"How dare you!" Chris told him angrily, standing up and pacing in front of him, his face getting redder. He couldn't believe that he was being treated this way, and by one of his best friends, no less. "I've done everything! I've never run away. I took my responsibility seriously."

"Then you'd fucking fight for her if you claim to love her so much. You didn't run away five years ago, but to me, sitting here, it looks like you're running away right now," said Rocky as he regarded his friend. "Don't be that guy. Don't be the guy that runs away from a challenge. Didn't you once tell me that you never wanted to half-ass it as a dad?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I'm not saying that guys aren't there for their kids if they aren't with the kid's mother, I'm not saying that at all. But you and Stephanie, this is unnecessary, Irvine. You love her, and you want to be with her, and excuse me if I find it just a little bit ridiculous that you aren't together. So that's half-assing it as a father. And you don't want to do that to Stephanie redux."

"Finn is fine," Chris said. "Finn's a trooper, he always has been. Any four year old who travels more than the average businessman is going to be a trooper, that's just a given."

"I can't believe you're going to sit on your ass with this one," his friend said, shaking his head. "You need to go after what you want. If you want Stephanie back, you've got to get off your ass and get her back!"

"But how?"

"I don't know, what the hell do you think I'm going to do, go get on my knee in front of her and propose myself?" Rock said, rolling his eyes. "Do I have to carry you in everything, Irvine? First I carry you to the Undisputed Championship, now I have to carry you in your relationships? It's getting tiring."

"It'd probably be a lot less tiring if you stopped bringing up how you carried me to the championship. It's been almost six years, I think it's time to get over that. Besides, I got the title again without your help."

"Only because you took your ass off television and then came back, which pretty much guaranteed you the title."

"So pretty much like your last two or three title runs?" Chris countered.

Rocky chuckled, "See, this is the Chris Irvine I know and tolerate."

"I still don't know what to do about Stephanie," he sighed. "I wish I did. I want to go after her, I _need_ her. I just don't know how to get her to want me like I want her. She's been rejecting me for five years and every time I hear it, it doesn't get any easier."

"It isn't supposed to be easy. It's supposed to be hard, but…at the risk of sounding like a cheese-filled puff--"

"What is with you and pastries?" Chris asked.

"Shove it up your ass, Irvine. What I'm saying is that…the things that you had to work to get are more satisfying once you get them, and if you were going to have to work at anything, it was going to be Stephanie. That girl is the living embodiment of a spitfire. That and annoying, which is something that luckily that little male clone of hers didn't pick up."

"You're the only one who can insult a kid and not have it come off like an insult, it's rather amazing."

"When you're The Rock, most things are amazing. How is that Stephanie redux anyways?" he asked.

"Broke his hand a few days ago in preschool."

"Wow, so he _does_ have some of your traits after all, and here we were all wondering if he'd end up at all like you and not the exact replica of Stephanie had she been born male," Rock said, once again insulting Finnegan in a playful manner. Rocky was the only one who could get away with that with his head still intact.

"Yeah, he picked up my ability to break bones," Chris quipped. "He was running around apparently and tripped and fell and there you have it, broken hand. He's fine though, he thinks the cast is cool, if not a little bit itchy. He's only two years younger than I was when I broke my elbow, so he'll bounce back."

"Of course he will, he's Stephanie's son, and she bounces back from everything, although she can't help it with those big tits of hers."

"Thanks for talking so crassly about the woman I love," Chris said sarcastically.

"Hey, she's not your girlfriend right now, thought I'd take advantage of it."

"You're so insightful for me."

"You want Stephanie, you have to go and get her. Don't be that guy you didn't want to be five years ago Chris. I've known you a long time, and I've known you with Stephanie for a long time, and you fit, and nobody else is ever going to take her knowing you're always going to be lurking in the background because of Stephanie redux."

"You make it all sound so simple, you forget this is Stephanie McMahon we're talking about, self-proclaimed hard-headed woman."

"Go for it, you just have to dive in and go for it. You want to marry her, so you get her to marry you. And when you do that, because I have complete faith that you will, see how nice I am, I'm going to be your best man."

"So now you're just going around appointing yourself to different roles. Is this how you get cast in your movies, you just invite yourself in and declare that you get the role?"

"Well at least I have roles and I didn't come running back to the business because my girlfriend asks me nicely to come back and I'm such a pussy I give in to her."

"The show needed me and I was back here all the time anyways," Chris grumbled. "So shut the hell up."

"Get new catchphrases."

"Seriously reducing your chance of being my best man. Anyways, I think Shane is going to want that…if Stephanie ever agrees to marry me."

"_When_, my friend, it's _when_," Rocky told him. "Besides, Shane's just going to have to get used to it. Especially because I was the one who helped you when Stephanie told you that she was pregnant, and I'm going to be so responsible for getting you back together this time since I lit a fire under your ass. I'm best man, period."

"Whatever, she has to say yes first."

"Don't you ever listen to The Rock?"

"Not really, you tend to go in one ear, out the other, like your fans." Rock glared at him for a second and Chris laughed, genuinely this time. "Ouch, Rock can dish it, but not take it. And what do you have to say about Stephanie, since you claim I don't listen to you."

"As long as you don't quit, she'll be yours."


	14. Chapter 14

"Hey Pops, can we talk?"

"What is it, Shane?" Vince said, looking up from his paperwork. "I'm kind of busy right now."

"Yeah, I understand that, but I still needed to talk to you and I couldn't think of a better time to do it," Shane said. He came in and sat across from his father. "I wanted to discuss a storyline idea with you."

Vince raised an eyebrow, "With me?"

"Yeah, with you," Shane confirmed.

"You do understand that your sister is in charge of storylines?" Vince told him.

"Yeah, but I think with this one I needed to go over her head a little bit," Shane said, starting to feel a little uneasy. It wasn't that he didn't think his idea was a good one, he thought it was very good. It was the feeling that he got around being his father and feeling like a teenager again. Vince had that effect on people.

"Well, if you feel that way, what is this storyline idea you have?" Vince asked curiously, wondering what kind of storyline Shane could possibly think up that he couldn't go to his sister for. Stephanie had been the head of the creative team since before Finnegan was born and she was doing as good a job as Vince could've hoped, so this had to be big.

"I wanted to do a storyline with Chris and Stephanie, you know, like before," Shane said, taking a deep breath afterwards.

"What? Between Chris and Stephanie?"

"Yeah, Pops, that's right."

"I don't think so, Shane," Vince said, going back to his paperwork.

"What? That's all, that's all you're going to say?" Shane asked, expecting more.

"Shane, if I told you what I think about that, then you'll get your feelings hurt, and I'm not going to deal with that right now."

"I think it could work, Dad."

"Are you cruel or something? I know I've been cruel in the past, but to your own sister? I didn't think that you would stoop that low. Did Stephanie say something to you, or do something to you that makes you want to do this to her?"

"Do what to her?"

"You know full well that Stephanie and Chris are no longer together and putting them into a forced work environment would make it awkward and painful for the both of them…no."

"But you've done it before."

"Stephanie is my daughter," Vince said firmly. "I'm not going to hurt her like that, Shane, and that's final. Why would you want to do that to your sister anyways?"

"Because it would force her to see Chris and realize what a huge mistake she's making in not being with Chris. Dad, we both know they're so obviously right for each other. We both know they should've gotten married years ago and maybe if we forced Stephanie into something with Chris, she'd see what everyone else sees!" Shane said, his voice impassioned.

Vince took a moment to look at his son. He took off his glasses and put them on his desk, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He agreed with what Shane was saying, but he didn't want to think about that right now. He knew that his daughter was stubborn and didn't understand why she would end a six-year relationship, but he was beyond understanding Stephanie. He had stopped understanding Stephanie the moment she had told Linda and him that she was pregnant.

He could remember that day like it was yesterday. She and Chris at dinner, and that was hardly unusual, she and Chris had come to dinner often, and he and his wife genuinely liked Chris, especially because of the smile he put on Stephanie's face. And then as the dessert was being served, as Linda sat down after serving everyone, Chris and Stephanie had dropped the bombshell that had forever changed their lives. She was pregnant, unmarried, and going to have this baby whether they liked it or not.

Now, he wasn't going to say that he wanted her to get rid of the baby, because he never thought that. But he did think of the consequences, of the marriage that should happen as soon as possible, the engagement would be brief, everything to make this baby as legitimate as possible. It was the father in him wanting nobody to look down on his little girl. A sense of old-fashioned in a world moving much faster than it had when he was growing up. Yet, Stephanie, as always, was steadfast in her views and instantly rejected her father's proposition of having them get married that very weekend.

Ever since then, Stephanie had been manning her own boat so to speak. She had refused certain things in favor of doing them her own way. She had raised Finnegan like he was an intricate and drawn out storyline she was working on. She would come to an obstacle, find a way to work through it and move on. All of that plus Chris had worked for so long because as of this moment, Finnegan was the only person in this world that Vince liked all the time. He couldn't say that about anybody else, but his grandson could do no wrong in his eyes, and the boy was always welcome, even in Vince's worst moods, Finnegan could turn it around in a second.

"Yes, I see what you see," Vince said slowly. "But this is a decision that Chris and Stephanie have made mutually. This is the real world Shane, it's not a storyline where we can manipulate the characters to our own whims. We have to respect your sister's decision and Chris's decision and allow them to work through this if they so choose."

"But Dad, this is just not right, and think about Finn, this isn't fair to Finn."

Vince closed his eyes. He could feel a headache approaching. "Finn is a McMahon, we're nothing if not resilient in the face of adversity. He'll be fine."

"Nobody seems to understand that he's four!" Shane exclaimed. "He's four years old and he doesn't understand this any more than I do or you do. His parents, who he has always had together and happy are suddenly apart, and you expect me to think that he's just going to troop through this?"

"Shane, you are not in their relationship and you don't know what happened. You're not getting your storyline, and that's the final word. Do not bother your sister, do you hear me?"

"Sure, sure," Shane mumbled as he stood up. He walked out of his father's office without another word. It felt like the whole world had just accepted this break-up except for him, and maybe, partly, Trish. It was like The Twilight Zone or something. Everyone was just being a zombie to this relationship between the two of them. Couldn't they see or help or do something to show they cared? What Shane didn't understand, was that by not doing anything, people were showing that they cared, in their own way.

Shane had just about enough of this and he was pissed off. He had told his dad he wouldn't bother Stephanie, but McMahons were also liars. He got into the elevator and went down to the seventh floor, where Stephanie's office was located. He walked purposefully down the hallway and anyone who saw him immediately got out of the way, not only because they would've bumped into him, but also because he looked like he had a chip on his shoulder and he was the boss. He went into Stephanie's office where she was watching a clip of one of their shows on the monitor she had on a shelf.

"Where's Finn?" Shane asked, noting that it was definitely after Finn's preschool ended.

"He's with Mom," Stephanie said. "She took him to see Grammy Vicky."

"Good," Shane said as he shut the door and locked it.

"Are you kidnapping me?" Stephanie asked with a laugh as she saw him lock the door.

"No, I'm here to ask why the hell you won't marry Chris, and don't bullshit with me this time, Stephanie, don't tell me some shit about how you're on two different planes and how you'll never see eye to eye because if anyone knows you other than Chris, that person is me, so stop shitting around with me and tell me why the hell you won't marry Chris."

"What the hell business is it of yours?" Stephanie snapped at him, her anger creeping up on her without warning.

"Because I'm sick and tired of seeing you guys apart when you could be happy, and it seriously seems like I'm the only person who cares about Finn in this entire mess. His parents love each other, I know you fucking love Chris."

"Of course I fucking love him!" Stephanie yelled, glad that her office was soundproof. "That's not being called into question here."

"Then why the hell aren't you with him!"

"It's none of your goddamn business Shane," Stephanie told him, "So get out of my office before I have security come and throw you out."

"No!" he told her, coming forward and slamming his hands on her desk. "This _is_ my business. When it involves my nephew, who I love, you better believe this involves me. I will not see that little boy sad for one second."

"And you think I want my son to be sad?" Stephanie challenged, standing up and putting her hands on her desk, mirroring Shane's position. Her eyes were becoming dangerously dark as she stared her older brother down. "You honestly think that I would ever, _ever_ want Finny to be upset? What kind of mother do you think I am?"

"I think you're a great mother, but I think you're misguided right here."

"I'm not misguided. And it really isn't your business why I won't marry Chris. I love Chris, but it's just not going to work out."

"But why?"

"Stop pushing me!" Stephanie said, gritting her teeth. "Why won't everyone just stop pushing me!"

"Because we want to understand _why_!" he countered.

"Chris didn't see a future with me, okay! Chris never saw a future with me!" she crumbled into her chair as she confessed her deepest fear, her darkest secret. She covered her face with her hands as she finally allowed herself to cry.

She hadn't cried in the past month and a half that she and Chris had been apart. She had kept her brave face on; she had been the consummate McMahon. She lived by the motto, "Never let them see you cry." Crying made you look weak, and she was strong. But here she was now, weak and vulnerable and finally letting the tears that had been right behind her eyes fall down her face.

Shane stood there for a moment, stunned that his sister had had such an outburst. Stephanie was known for that, but this was different; this was the confession of someone who had been keeping something in for a long time. Shane came around her desk quickly and knelt down next to his chair, and for the first time in twenty-three years, he hugged his sister while she cried. Not just cried either, but sobbed, her pain palpable and Shane wondered how long she had been keeping this in, this incredible hurt that he could feel breaking her into a million pieces right before his eyes.

"Steph, tell me what happened, tell me what he said," Shane pleaded as he held her.

Stephanie, embarrassed, pulled away. She didn't want to confess, she didn't want to tell her reasons, but she hardly had any choice now that Shane knew the truth. She grabbed a Kleenex off the desk and tried to clean herself up a little bit. Even if it was just Shane seeing her like this, it wasn't the image she liked to project to the world.

"He told Edge that he didn't see a future with me, that he never saw a future with me," Stephanie said. "And then the next week, I told him I was pregnant, and suddenly everything changed. I got pregnant and everything changed, his opinions changed, and all because I was pregnant. If I hadn't been…if I hadn't gotten pregnant…there would've been no us."

"Oh Steph, you don't know that," Shane whispered as he pulled away from her. She looked like such a little girl in that moment that Shane thought she was going to go to her room and cry into her pink pillow.

"I do know that," Stephanie said. "He only stayed with me because of Finny. That's why I've always said no. Because if I didn't marry him, if I kept that part of myself closed…it wouldn't hurt so bad when he left."

"He never left, Steph. He never once left you."

"He would've," Stephanie said. "I gave him that option. I gave him the opportunity, and I always knew that he would take it. I took his future from him is all, by moving on and staying away from him, I'm doing the best I can to give it back."

"Chris loves Finn, Steph. He's crazy about that kid."

"I know that, and I understand that. But that doesn't change the fact that Finny wasn't supposed to happen. I love my son so much it hurts when he's away from me, case in point the fact that he's been traveling around the world since he was wearing newborn diapers. But still, Chris and I were together for Finny, and while it worked for a long time, he probably just got fed up and left."

"He kept asking you to marry him though."

"Because of Finny. The first time he ever proposed was five days after Finny was born. Sure, we knew that we didn't want to get married while I was pregnant, and we thought very briefly about it, but he never, ever discussed marriage before he found out I was pregnant, but then five days after our son is born…he asked. Just out of the blue, nothing big or anything, just thought it might be nice. He didn't have his heart into it, so I said no. And I've been saying no ever since because I know that he doesn't want to be with me, not really. And while it's noble that he wants to stay with me for our son, that's just it, it's for our son. I can't live like that any more than he can. If he has a chance to go out there and find someone, I need to give him that chance because I took it away from him."

"You didn't take anything away from him. You gave him a son. You didn't take anything," Shane told her.

"I took his future," she said, looking off into the distance at a scene he couldn't see. "I tried to hang on. I got six years with him, which was probably a lot more than I deserved. I think if it hadn't been for Finny, he would've broken up with me that second year we were together. He didn't see a future with me."

"Are you sure that's what he meant?" Shane asked, just truly not believing that Chris would be so callous as to say something like that to anyone. And then there was the fact he stayed with Stephanie supposedly five years after this comment. "Because if he really was just with you because of Finn, why would he be so into you? Why would he do such nice things for you? You'd think if he thought that, he'd be distant and you know, cheating on you, and we both know that he never cheated on you."

"Well, I don't know that," she said.

"Come on Steph, we both know that's not Chris. So what did he say?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Tell me," he insisted.

"He was talking with Edge," she recalled. "I was about to walk around the corner when I heard him talking about me. So I stood there out of sight. Edge asked if it was serious between the two of us, and Chris said, and this is what he said exactly, he said, 'I guess I don't think of the future when I'm with Stephanie.'"

"Wait, that's what he said?"

"It's been imprinted on my brain for the past five years," Stephanie told him. "I think I would know what he said."

"That's what you've been saying no to? That's the phrase that has dictated your life for the past five years and made both you and Chris miserable?" Shane asked incredulously. "He said he didn't think of the future with you?"

"Yes! God, stop making me think of it," she said, covering her face, mortified that the man she loved only saw a future with her because of their son.

"Oh my God, Stephanie. How could you be so naïve?" Shane asked.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe he said that because the two of you didn't have a future back then? And not in the way that he never saw marrying you or being with you forever but because of the fact you two never planned anything in your life."

"Huh? I don't get it."

"Stephanie, you and Chris back then never planned the future. The only future you had was the minute after the minute you were living. How many times did I have to hear that you flew somewhere on a whim, that you decided you wanted real pizza so you flew to Italy on one of your weekends off? Of course he didn't see a future, you guys didn't like planning the future."

She furrowed her brow, "So you're saying that for the past five years, I've been living a lie?"

"I think so," he said. "Come on, Steph, think about it for a second. He didn't say that he didn't _want_ a future, or didn't see a future, but that he didn't think of the future. There's a huge difference."

Stephanie thought about it for a second. She had been so caught up in the fact that she thought Chris didn't want a future with her that she never took the time to actually analyze what he said. She didn't want to think that she had been wrong about this, but all signs were pointing to that. She turned slowly to Shane and he had his head tilted, giving her that Shane look of his. She looked to her desk where there was a picture of Chris and Finnegan together at the beach, Chris throwing Finnegan into the water.

"I've been so stupid," she whispered to herself.

"Well, you just misinterpreted it."

"I've wasted all this time when I would've said yes the first time he asked me," she told him.

"But at least you know that even without the ring, he would've stuck around," Shane said, trying to make her feel better. Sure, she had believed something wrong for many years, but anybody could've done the same thing. "He stuck around because he loves you."

"And I kept saying no. He kept asking and I kept saying no," she said in a daze. "He loves me, and God, how he must've felt when I kept telling him that I didn't want to marry him…"

"And yet he kept asking? That's a man who loves a woman," Shane told her, finally getting through to her. "That just shows how much he loves you, Steph. He was willing to keep asking."

"I kept rejecting him, oh God, I kept rejecting him!" she said, sounding a little crazed. "How could I do that!"

"It'll be okay. You just need to talk to Chris and straighten this all out. Trust me, he won't turn you away. He loves you, baby sis, he's told me as much a million times."

A knock came at the door followed by someone trying the knob. "Mommy, let me in!"

"Oh God, Finny can't see me like this," Stephanie said, trying to clean herself up quickly, rubbing her eyes in a futile attempt to make it look like she hadn't been crying. Shane didn't seem to care as he went to the door and opened it for Finnegan, who ran inside and up to his mother.

"Mommy, what's wrong?" Finnegan asked in alarm as he saw the state his mother was in. Linda stood in the doorway and gave Shane a questioning, but stern look. He led her out of the room and closed the door behind him.

"What's wrong with Stephanie?" Linda asked. "Did you say anything to upset her?"

"No Mom, I think she's going to be just fine."

Stephanie sniffled and looked at Finnegan, "Nothing's wrong, Finny. Mommy's fine."

"You don't look fine, Mommy," he told her as he came closer and tried to climb on her lap. "Do you need a hug?"

She lifted him into her lap and hugged him. "Did you have fun at Grammy Vicky's?"

"Yeah, she said that I look like Grandpa Vince when he was a kid like me, but I don't think I look like Grandpa Vince."

"You look like Mommy," she said, resting her cheek against his head.

"Are you sad, Mommy?"

Stephanie thought for a moment. If Shane was right, and she was starting to believe he was, then she would have a lot of explaining to do to Chris. But when she looked back over the years, Chris did love her and always put her before himself. She had been so stupid and blinded by her own perception, she hadn't seen the little things Chris did for her, the way he looked at her when she was cooking, or the way he would fix her collar if it was sticking up, or how he'd wipe away a smudge of makeup on her face. She kissed Finnegan's head and smiled.

"Not for long Finny, not for long."


	15. Chapter 15

"_Okay, who said having a baby would be easy?"_

_Chris sat on the floor in Finnegan's nursery. Stephanie was standing above him, walking back and forth with Finnegan in her arms. He was crying and then crying some more, his face contorted in screams as she tried to calm him. Chris had been at it for about ten minutes before Stephanie took over, and now he was leaning against the teal-painted wall._

"_Nobody," he answered._

"_Oh yeah, remind me again why we had him?"_

"_No choice," Chris laughed as Stephanie's laugh trickled through the room._

"_Right, right, right," she said. "Because we're the idiots who didn't take enough precautions, resulting in the little bundle of hell in my arms right now."_

"_Exactly."_

"_Come on Finny, please be quiet, please, please, please, please, I'm begging you, see, Mommy is begging you, I will get down on my knees and beg if you stop crying. I will do anything you want if you stop crying. If you want me to act like Barney or whatever, I will, I will do that if you stop crying."_

_Chris watched as Stephanie continued to try and calm down the little boy. Her hair was messed up from sleeping and she was in her pajamas, some long pajama pants and a tank top for easy breastfeeding. She had a baby towel slung over one shoulder and Finnegan in her arms. He had never thought she was not beautiful, but he couldn't recall a time she looked more beautiful, not even when she had that pregnancy glow. It was truly something when she could look so beautiful at four in the morning with a crying baby in her arms, stressed out to the max._

_Then his mouth said something before his brain could contemplate it. "Stephanie, will you marry me?"_

_Stephanie froze for a moment, and if this tale were anything but true, Finnegan would've stopped crying in that very moment. But he didn't, he kept wailing in her ear and she was still standing in his nursery in the middle of the night. She turned to Chris, mouth agape as he sat there on the floor against the wall, no ring, no bended knee, no flowers surrounding them. No, they were just in their newborn son's nursery, painted in a light teal with oak furniture and a balloon lamp on top of the dresser. A newborn son they didn't plan and didn't know how to take care of yet and were just scraping by. _

"_What?"_

"_Um," he cleared his throat, suddenly dry even though it hadn't been a moment before. "Will you marry me?"_

"_You're…asking me to marry you…now, right now?" she asked, glancing around the room. _

"_Yeah, yeah I am," he said, a little more confident now. He stood up and went over to her. He took Finnegan from her arms and as if by magic (or because Finnegan was tired), Finnegan stopped crying and she stared down in awe._

"_How did you do that?" she asked._

"_He's tired, he cried himself to sleep," he said, holding Finnegan closer to him. "So…about the question…"_

"_Chris…"_

"_I mean, we're a family now, and I thought…well, I mean, we can make that official."_

_Stephanie looked at him, straight in the eyes, searching for something. She was searching for her answer, wanting to know what the reason for this was for, why this second, why now, when Finnegan was just born. It was like faced with Finnegan he knew he should marry her. That he didn't want her to be alone, a single mother, so he would tie himself to her like a life preserver._

"_Chris…not tonight," she told him. "Look at us. We're standing here at four in the morning with our baby, and this isn't right, this moment isn't right, and we can't just rush into a marriage because we have a baby. I mean, does this feel right to you?"_

_He sighed and shook his head, "No, it doesn't feel right."_

"_Yeah, that's what I thought," she said. "Here let me put him to bed."_

_Chris never told her that it felt right to him._

Chris was tapping his fingers on the barren table in his apartment. He was anxious, of this he was sure. His leg was also beating out its own rhythm on the floor underneath the table. He was waiting impatiently for the person he had an appointment with to arrive. He had set up a private consultation and was just waiting for the person to arrive as Finnegan took a nap in his bedroom. He wanted to get this person in and out before Finnegan woke up and tattled on him to Stephanie.

Finally, there was a buzz on his intercom and he got up quickly to ask who it was and buzz them up. When he did that, he looked around his apartment, making sure everything was in place. He didn't want to look like a slob for this woman. There was a knock on the door and he rushed to answer it. The jeweler looked to be about his age, maybe a little younger and she was dressed professionally.

"Hello, Mr. Irvine I presume," she said, sticking her hand out.

Chris shook it amicably and held the door open for her. "Yes, but please, call me Chris."

"Okay Chris, only if you call me Jane," she answered with a smile.

"Will do, won't you come inside," he said, leading her to the table where she laid some catalogues. "Would you like anything to drink?"

"Oh no, I'm fine," she said as they sat down. "So, you said over the phone that you're in the market for an engagement ring and you wanted it custom-made because you had a very specific idea in mind for it."

"Yes, I did," he told her. "I don't think I could find what I'm looking for just anywhere, it's a little unusual, but so is the woman I want to marry and the circumstances under which I want to marry her."

"Sounds like she would need a special ring."

"She does. She really does," he said, a little more dreamily than he would've liked.

"Okay, so what did we have in mind?"

"Well, I wanted to use our birthstones in the ring."

"That's an interesting concept," she told him. "A lot more well-thought out than a lot of men take into engagement rings. What birthstones are the two of you?"

"Well, I'm a citrine and she's a sapphire."

"Oh, so did you want to build the ring around the sapphire then?" she inquired.

"Actually, there's one more element to the puzzle," Chris interrupted. "You see, we have a four year old son together, and I wanted his birthstone to be the center of the ring. I know it sounds cheesy and everything, but he's just everything to us so I wanted it to be like, he's the most important thing in the form of the ring."

"That's really beautiful," she said gently. "Do you have any brothers?"

"Unfortunately, I'm an only child."

"My husband will be happy to hear that," she joked. "And your son's birthstone would be?"

"We're in luck, he was born in April, so it's a diamond. I was thinking of the diamond in the middle and then our two birthstones on either side."

"That sounds lovely, so let's talk the different cuts that we want and the band and everything. I think with the kind of ring that you want, a platinum band will be the most sufficient, you mentioned in your price range that you had no ceiling."

"Yes, that's correct, I only want the best for her and since I have the means to do so, I want to do that for her. She deserves this, she's put up with me for the last six years, so she definitely deserves this."

Jane laughed, "Well, we have some lovely rings that we could look at, but might I make a suggestion?"

"Yeah, sure, you're the jeweler and I'm just the doofus who knows nothing about rings," he joked.

"Well, I think that in this case a pave setting would look a little less on the garish side considering we're using three different stones, while also emphasizing your son's birthstone, the diamond, which you want to be the focus anyways right?"

"Yeah, I want his to definitely be the focus, and I don't want it to look like a clown ring, but I'm not entirely sure what a pave setting is, I have an idea, but I'm not totally clear on that."

"Well," she said, grabbing one of the catalogues and flipping through it before settling on a picture. "This would be an example right here, the stones are paved into the band to create the illusion that the band is made of that particular stone. Now, usually, we do that with diamonds, but if we maybe put a couple of citrines on one side and a couple sapphires on the other, it would look beautiful with the diamond in the middle setting."

"That actually sounds kind of cool," he said, looking down at the catalogue at the example of what she was talking about. He heard a door open behind him and cringed a little as Finnegan walked out sleepily. He turned to his son and smile, "Hey there, kiddo."

"Hi Daddy," he mumbled, still trying to fully awaken from his nap. "Can I have a snack?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, turning to Jane. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, don't worry about it, I've got two at home myself," she responded, "I know what it's like. He's very cute."

"Thanks," he said, getting up and going into the kitchen to pour some Goldfish crackers into a small bowl and grab a juice box for Finnegan.

Finnegan walked over to the kitchen and saw someone he didn't know, but smiled anyways, "Hi, my name is Finn."

"Well hello Finn," she responded, shaking his little hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too," he said, very business-like, another one of Stephanie's traits, surprise, surprise.

"Hey there Finn, do you want to go watch TV?" Chris asked as he came over with his snack.

Finnegan shook his head, "Daddy, can I sit with you? I want to sit with you."

Chris really didn't want to look at rings around Finnegan in case he told Stephanie about it, but he could hardly deny his son in this situation and nodded, sitting down and pulling Finnegan into his lap while he munched on his crackers and drank his juice. Jane smiled, realizing just why Chris wanted the diamond to be the absolute centerpiece of the ring, not just because it was the flashiest stone.

"Jane, do you think that it would be okay if we did this another time, I don't want someone to be a loose-lips around a certain other someone."

"Oh, I get it," Jane said. "I'll leave these catalogues here and you can look them over and call it in and we'll make you this ring. From what you've been suggesting, it sounds like it'll be beautiful."

"Thanks, let me at least walk you out to your car."

"If you insist."

Like many things in life, timing is everything. At this very moment, Stephanie was driving to Chris's apartment to drop off Finnegan's stuffed teddy bear that he had forgotten. Finnegan still liked to have his teddy bear around him when he slept although he had given up the habit of carrying it around during the day. But still, if Chris was ever going to get Finnegan to sleep that night, he was going to need Lionheart, which was the name Chris gave the bear, not the name Finnegan gave the bear, because Chris was a little vain.

She was still trying to find the right moment to talk to him about her new discovery. Being away from him was killing her. It was only now that she realized how big and empty the house was without Chris. Sure, she had realized that it was big and empty, but Chris brought something to the house. He made it alive somehow, and though cheesy metaphors were not her style, she couldn't help it. She loved that man and she only hoped that it wasn't too late.

That was a scary thought to think about. She had been telling Chris that she wouldn't marry him for the past five years almost, and that had to break his heart a little bit more after every rejection. Yet he never left her, and she was so dumb and blind not to realize that wasn't just because of Finnegan, but because he loved her, and he had been willing to wait for her to be ready, except she had always been ready. She just never thought she was worthy. She never thought Chris just wanted her for her.

She pulled up across from his apartment building and saw Chris walking out with some woman. She furrowed her brow and watched as he walked her to the car, both of them smiling and talking as Chris held Finnegan in her arms. She looked suspiciously at this woman as Chris stood with her next to her car parked on the street. Her face turned to a scowl as Chris grinned widely at this woman. This blonde-haired, neatly dressed woman. Why was there a woman there? She wasn't going to jump to conclusions, but she couldn't help the thoughts creeping through her mind that she was too late. If she was too late, she didn't know what she was going to do. She couldn't lose Chris when she had him for so long.

She drove off to circle around the block so Chris wouldn't know she had been watching and then came back around to see Chris and Finnegan horsing around on the grass outside his apartment building. She pulled up again and parked this time, grabbing Lionheart and opening the door. She started crossing the private street that Chris lived on and Finnegan spotted her first.

"Mommy!" Finnegan yelled as he ran towards Stephanie at full speed, crashing into her legs as he hugged her tightly around the waist. "What are you doing here?"

"I brought someone who was missing you," she said, bringing Lionheart around from her back.

"Lionheart!" he yelled, grabbing it and hugging it to him. "Where were you?"

"He was at home and he was asking me where you were and I told him you were at Daddy's and he got very sad and cried, and then we had a nice cup of coffee and I told him I'd bring him over. He's very upset that you left him though."

"I'm sorry," he said seriously to his bear, then went to Chris, who by this time was walking over. "Daddy, I forgetted Lionheart."

"Wow, that could've been a disaster," he said.

"I'm going to play with him," Finnegan said, going over and sitting on the grass with his bear as Chris walked over to Stephanie with a smile on his face. Just seeing her was reason enough for him to smile. Stephanie found herself feeling like she did when Chris had first asked her out. There was kind of a giddy feeling in her stomach. Even if she did see a woman here earlier, it couldn't have been for the reason that was creeping in her brain, it just couldn't be.

Chris was hers, and he had been hers for the past six years, maybe even longer than that. She remembered when he had first asked her out and the feeling of shock when he uttered the words at her. She never expected him to ask her out; they had been just friends for the past few years and for him to ask her out like that, totally out of the blue, well, it was unexpected but not unwanted. She felt that way right now, that shock and happiness that she first felt so long ago.

"Hey," Chris said. "Thanks for bringing over Lionheart, Finn never would've fallen asleep without him."

"I know," she said. "He loves that bear."

"Yeah," he said, glancing back at Finnegan.

"Hey Chris, I was wondering if we could…talk," she said, forging forward and going for what she wanted, which had always been Chris.

"Right now?"

"Well, if you've got the time."

"Actually, I'm kind of busy with Finnegan and there's this other thing, related to non-wrestling business that I've got to get squared away, and you know, I would really love to, but I can't," Chris said, knowing if she went upstairs, there'd be a whole slew of catalogues of rings all over the table waiting to greet her in the face. The next time they really talked was going to be the moment where he proposed. He would lay it all out on the line and if she refused, then he'd have to accept that it was over.

"Oh," she said, sounding disappointed. He wanted to kiss her so badly, but he restrained himself. "Maybe another time then."

"Of course."

"I better go, I was going to go out with my mother for dinner," she explained. "Have fun with Finny."

"I will," he told her.

Stephanie circumvented him and went over to Finnegan, kneeling on the grass. Chris turned and watched as Finnegan stood up and hugged her tightly, whispering something in her ear. She smiled and pulled away to kiss the tip of his nose. He kissed her cheek and almost didn't want to let go, but eventually did as she stood up. She smiled and waved to Chris, and he watched her walk to her car and drive off. He was going to marry that woman, he knew it, he was going to marry her.

Stephanie, on the other hand, was starting to think he was out of her reach.


	16. Chapter 16

Jealousy never really becomes anyone.

It became Paul even less. For six years he had waited for Stephanie to be single. He thought it would never happen, especially after her son was born, but he knew that if he was patient that it would pay off. He just had to wait out the relationship, and that time had come just recently. He of course waited the "appropriate" amount of time before going to ask her out, but having heard she'd been on a date already, he knew he had to move fast.

"Stephanie, can I talk to you?"

Stephanie looked up from her desk. She looked at the clock and saw that the show was still about an hour from starting so she wasn't in any real hurry to get anywhere. "Yeah, sure, does this have to do with the show because I'm really not in the mood to revise anything, so you might as well go to my father or the director."

"No, this has nothing to do with the show actually," he said, gesturing towards a chair. "May I sit?"

"Well, I was going to go get Finny in a few minutes so Chris could prepare for his segment at the top of the show, but I figure that I've got a little bit of time, if you hurry that is," she told him.

"I know that you and Chris just got over a relationship, but I was wondering if you'd like to go out for a drink with me or something?" he asked, knowing full well that she didn't drink that much anymore.

"I don't drink that much, not with Finny around," Stephanie said, just like he knew she would. He furrowed his brow like he was thinking and then perked up a little bit.

"So how about dinner then?" he asked, Stephanie falling into his trap perfectly.

"Oh, well, wow, I wasn't expecting that," she told him, and that was the truth. She honestly thought this had something to do with the show and not something to do with her personal life. She didn't know what to say. Sure, she had a storyline with him way back in 2000 and 2001, but that was a long time ago, a very long time ago. After that, they really hadn't interacted, both onscreen and off.

"Well, I've always kind of admired you, and you know, now that I know that you aren't attached, I thought I'd take a chance, I mean, that's not too bad or anything is it?" Paul said, in what he hoped was a charming tone.

"I don't really know what to say," Stephanie said, putting her pen down. "This is really just out of the blue."

"I'm sorry that it seems that way, but I've always thought that you were a really interesting person and I'd love the opportunity to get to know you."

Stephanie sighed. "Can you give me some time of think about this? I mean, I don't think that I can just give you an answer right now. You and I have worked together, and you know, even if we aren't working together right this second, it's still a little weird."

"Yeah, sure of course."

"Thanks, and thanks for the offer," Stephanie said. Paul nodded and got up, a little disappointed that she hadn't said yes immediately. He figured that she would say yes to him since he was Paul Levesque, Triple H. But then she hadn't said no, so there was still a chance. Maybe she didn't know if she could get a baby-sitter or something.

Stephanie watched him leave and then stuck out her tongue and shuddered to herself. Paul always gave her a creepy vibe. He was just so…she couldn't quite put her finger on it. But he was definitely something, and she wasn't sure she liked that something. She knew that as soon as she and Chris's relationship ended that guys in the company would be knocking down her door. And she wasn't so stupid as to believe that all these guys wanted her because she was pretty.

She knew that a lot of the reason that any guy would want her was because she bore the name McMahon. That was a very powerful name, especially for those working in the company. When Chris had first asked her out, a part of her was apprehensive about becoming involved with someone in the company for the sheer fact that she felt she might be used. She got over that in one night with Chris when he talked to her so candidly there was no way that he could possibly be using her. And he had never used her in any capacity, well, she had put a little more money into their house than he had, but that was totally inconsequential.

She always got the feeling that Paul wanted her for her power, or at least wanted to be her friend for it. There were politics abound backstage and she wasn't oblivious to that. To get to the top, sometimes you had to use ill-gotten means to get there, she understood that, but she'd be damned if someone tried to play her like a fiddle. She wasn't going to get used, and by someone like Paul, not going to happen in a million years. She scoffed to herself a little bit as she went to work.

Meanwhile, Paul was bragging to Randy, "So I asked out Stephanie just now."

Randy, something of Paul's protégé, as sad as that was, responded, "You did, and what did she say? I mean, she couldn't resist you right?"

"Well, she hasn't said yes yet, but it's only a matter of time before that happens. I figure I can butter her up by calling the local florist, getting a dozen roses sent to her, she'll be eating out of the palm of my hand."

"You think?"

"I _know_," he answered. "I mean, she's coming off a serious relationship, all she wants is someone to make it all better, and that's where I come in. I can make it all better. Randy, my friend, you have no idea how long I've been waiting out this relationship."

"Yeah, I know, for years right?"

"It's felt like forever, before you were even in this company. But he had to get her pregnant, but I knew they'd never last. It was only a matter of time, and now that time is over, and it's time to usher in the Paul Levesque Era. Irvine never knew how to use her to the fullest advantage."

"He is the champion though."

"For now, but how long do you think that's going to last with that relationship going down the drain? It's as good as mine. Well, I've got to call the florist and get the flowers. You know, Stephanie is a really good and pretty woman."

"She is," Randy concurred.

"I really wouldn't mind being with her," he shrugged. "I mean, I don't think I'd cheat on her if I were with her."

"Wow, she's worth that kind of trouble?"

"I think she might be."

Chris held hands with Finnegan as he walked down the hallway to the gorilla. Stephanie hadn't come to pick up Finnegan and he was getting a little annoyed by her absence. Now he had to go out there and leave Finnegan backstage. He knew that Finnegan would be fine, everyone around here knew him and knew if they messed with him, you were messing with the McMahon family, and nobody would put their job at risk like that. He saw Vince sitting in his usual spot with his headphones around his neck, ready to listen in on the show and give his input to JR and Lawler and saw Chris walking over with Finnegan.

"Hi Grandpa Vince," Finnegan said, leaning his chin on the table in front of his grandpa. "Whatcha doin?"

"I'm going to watch the show in a few minutes, what are you doing?"

"I'm standing here," he giggled.

"Hey Vince, can you watch Finn while I'm out there? Stephanie was supposed to come get him, but she's nowhere to be found, and as cool as people would find it if I took my four-year old son out there so they could yell at him and call his mother a slut, I don't really want that for him."

Vince patted the seat next to him. "I always have time for my grandson. Come on Finn, you can help Grandpa work."

"Really?" Finnegan asked incredulously.

"Sure." Finnegan looked amazedly at his father before running around the table and climbing onto the seat next to Vince. He grinned widely as he leaned on the table and Vince put a pair of headphones on him. Chris looked at him and he didn't think he'd ever seen Finnegan as excited as he was in that moment.

"Thanks Vince."

"It's no problem, he's my grandson," Vince said, patting the ecstatic Finnegan on the back.

Chris went out there and started his spiel as Stephanie rushed around looking for Finnegan. She had completely lost track of time after Paul had asked her out. She had promised to relieve Chris of Finnegan and she was kicking herself for not finding him. What had snapped her out of it was hearing Chris's music blasting through the arena. Now she was searching frantically for wherever Finnegan was. She sighed when she saw him sitting with Vince, a pair of too big headphones on his head.

"Oh Finny, I'm sorry I didn't get you," Stephanie said as she went up to him.

"I'm helping!" Finnegan said. "I'm helping Grandpa!"

"Oh wow, Grandpa doesn't even let _me_ help, he must really, really like you," Stephanie said, and it was kind of the truth, her father didn't usually let her man the station when he was there. It was only when he was gone that she got to sit in.

"I like me," Finnegan shrugged.

Stephanie laughed and kissed his forehead. "I like you too."

Chris walked backstage after his promo was done and saw Stephanie kneeling next to Finnegan and trying to listen in on his headphones playfully. Stephanie spotted him and smiled, mouthing that she had Finnegan and Chris nodded. He had to get ready for his match later that evening. He waved at them before wandering off.

He wasn't that far down the hallway when he saw a bouquet of flowers going into Stephanie's office. Chris knew that he hadn't sent the flowers and became suspicious. He waited until the delivery guy walked back out before going into Stephanie's office and he went in himself, walking up to the flowers. There was a card sticking out of them and he plucked it out before reading it.

_Just thought these might get you to say yes to that date._

_-Paul_

Chris sucked at his teeth a little bit. He could feel his blood pressure starting to rise as he read and reread the note before him. Paul had held a grudge against him since the moment he stepped into this company and let it be pretty much common knowledge. And though he knew nothing of the reason why, Chris wasn't so hasty as to not return that hatred. Now Paul was thinking he was going to go after Stephanie. Oh, no, because Chris knew the reason. He crumpled up the note, throwing it on the ground before stalking out of the office and stomping down the hallway.

He found Paul leaning against the wall seemingly reading over a script. Chris's nostrils flared as he breathed through his nose. His hands clenched and unclenched at his side as he let the anger flow through every vein in his body, spreading like a poison that would reach his mind last. And the moment it did reach his mind, he stormed over to Paul, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and threw him up against the wall with all his force.

"Hey, what the hell, Irvine!" Paul said, his voice a little choked.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Chris asked him through gritted teeth.

"What do you mean, I was standing here reading the script."

"Not with the script, what the hell do you think you're doing with Stephanie? What the hell are you doing asking her out?"

"She's not yours anymore, Irvine, so what the hell is with the bully act?" Paul asked. "You guys broke up, remember?"

"I don't give a shit what she is to me, or what you think is happening with us, we both know what kind of agenda you have with Stephanie, now don't we, Paul? We both know the ulterior motives to you asking her out. I've known for years that you've been waiting out this relationship because you want to get in Stephanie's pants, but let me tell you right now, it's not going to happen, you are not going to get anywhere near a position of touching her, and believe me on that, that storyline you had together was the last time you'll ever be near her like that."

Paul rolled his eyes, "She's not yours anymore, Irvine, get over it, she didn't want your ass and she's never going to want you. Think about it, man, why would she keep telling you no, huh? How many times did she turn down your proposals?"

Chris felt the fight start to drain out of him a little as he let go of Paul, who dusted off his shirt. He took a step back as Paul laughed at him. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about, Levesque."

"I think I do," Paul countered. "I don't see you being married to her. And we all know you've been trying to get her to marry you for years, so where's the ring, Irvine? Where's the wedding, or did I not get invited? Yeah, there's no wedding, and there's never going to be a wedding because she's never going to marry you. You're broken up, deal with it."

"Shut up," Chris muttered. Paul was hitting him where it hurt. Chris didn't have a lot of obvious weaknesses, but the fact that Stephanie had refused to marry him for so long didn't sit well in his stomach. It was the one point that hurt, really, truly hurt. He usually didn't let people get to him, but Paul was different, Paul knew how to push those buttons.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. She's never been yours, Irvine. The only reason she stuck with you is because you knocked her up. You think that she'd still be with you, a has-been, if you didn't have that kid? You honestly think she would've stayed with you. She was forced to after you got her pregnant."

Chris was speechless. He didn't know how to respond to that, was there anything he could say to that? That was his biggest fear, well, no, that was just hyperbole, his biggest fear was something happening to Stephanie or Finnegan and losing them. But the fear that Stephanie had only been with him because of Finnegan was pretty high up there. It was a very real possibility, especially with the fact that she refused his marriage proposals again and again. If she rejected him with the next one he gave her, he had no choice but to believe that what Paul said was true, and that would never sit well with him.

Paul chuckled, "What, is the great Chris Irvine out of words?"

"You don't even know her," Chris muttered, shaking his head.

Paul smirked and then made that a smile, "I know how she kisses, very nice. She has soft lips and man, she's a great kisser, when you get your tongue in that mouth, she's all hot and breathy, and you just hold her close…"

Chris was seeing red again. His breaths were becoming stunted and he was restraining himself to the very limit. He couldn't even form words, the lump of anger rising in his throat like bile. Paul was talking about the woman he loved. He hadn't been with her for the first part of the McMahon-Helmsley Era, but he had been around for the second half, and it always made him uncomfortable to see them act around each other. It almost made him glad that Paul had torn his quad muscle. His teeth were starting to chatter a little from trying to hold his jaw steady and not scream in Paul's face.

Paul was getting under Chris's skin and he loved it, "I bet she's a good lay, right? I mean, she'd have to be to knock her up, right? With her underneath you and all that, screaming your name. I bet when you're pounding into--"

Chris lost it at that moment, his blind rage getting the better of him. This was the woman he loved being talked about and the mother of his child. He reared his arm back and punched Paul so hard he staggered back, tripping over a crate and falling over. Before he could react, Chris was on top of him, laying blows wherever they could land. He let out all his frustrations with Stephanie and the anger that Paul brought to his stomach.

"How dare you talk about her like that! How dare you!" Chris said over and over again as he laid into Paul.

"Chris!" came a voice, but it was too far away for him to realize who it was and how close they were. All he saw was what Paul had said, some other guy having sex with Stephanie, some other guy that wasn't him being with her, and he could only focus on that.

Suddenly, he felt someone pulling him away from the defeated Paul. Chris tried to shake free, but the person had too strong a hold on him. He tried to catch his breath, feeling like he had run a marathon. He saw Shane standing between them and looked over his shoulder to see John Cena holding him back. He pushed himself away and everyone waited on baited breath for him to charge at Paul again but he didn't.

"What is going on here?" said another voice, and Chris looked up to see Vince stalking over to them, alone gratefully.

"He hit me!" Paul said, glaring at Chris as he held his bloody nose.

"Chris, is this true? You did this?" Vince asked.

"The bastard deserved it!" Chris shouted.

"Chris, my office now. Paul, go get yourself cleaned up," Vince said. "And don't think you're getting off easy, we'll discuss this later."

Chris followed Vince into his office and slumped down into the seat, not wanting to talk to his boss right now. "Chris, what happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Chris told him.

"Chris, I need to know what happened."

"You know what happened, what happened was I got caught up in this family, in the McMahon family and I'm never getting out. That was my mistake. If it weren't for Stephanie, I wouldn't be here right now!" he yelled. "I'd be off doing my music, maybe I'd have a wife and a fucking white picket fence, I'd have no Stephanie to talk me into coming back here and dealing with that asshole, Paul Levesque!"

"You really think that? You really wish you had never gotten involved with the McMahons? I know my daughter can be a bitch, Chris, I know this."

"She's driving me nuts, Vince," Chris said, running his hands through his hair. "She's ruining my life and I can't escape her and we have Finn, and I can't take it anymore. Paul asked her out tonight."

"And you didn't like this?"

"Of course not, Stephanie is mine, she's the mother of my child."

"I know this, I was there when you told me I was going to be a grandfather. I know she's the mother of your child, even though it wasn't what I wanted for the both of you. I wouldn't trade having Finn in my life for anything."

"Neither would I," Chris said. "I wouldn't…Paul was talking about sleeping with her and how it'd be to sleep with her, and I lost it, Vince. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't take it back."

Vince shook his head, "I'm sorry to hear that Paul was saying those types of things about my daughter. But Chris, why are you so angry that he asked her out, you two are no longer together."

"Vince, you wouldn't understand. He was talking about how she didn't love me because she kept turning me down. I don't know, it was just like…what if he's right? What if Stephanie was only with me for Finn?"

"That's not true, we both know that. I know my daughter, and she would never string anyone along like that. She's not like that, Chris, we both know that."

"Yeah, I know…"

"Well, you're dismissed, just don't let this happen again, I don't want two of my top superstars to be out of action."

"Yeah, thanks," he mumbled.

He was just out the door when Vince called out to him, "Chris?"

"Yeah?"

"She'll come around."

Stephanie had heard the buzz around her as she and Finnegan walked to catering to get some apple juice. Everyone was kind of staring at her and she couldn't figure out why. She went into catering and suddenly people got quiet around her. She took Finnegan's hand and went over to the large coolers where the drinks were, pulling out an apple juice and opening it for her son. They sat down for a moment and everyone was sneaking glances at her.

She leaned down to Finnegan and asked, "Finny, is it just me or is everyone staring at us?"

"I don't know, Mommy, do you want me to ask?" he asked her.

"No, I just got a funny feeling in my tummy."

"Oh," Finnegan answered seriously. "Maybe you have a tummyache or maybe your tummy growling because you're hungry."

"I don't think so, Finny, but thanks for the advice," she said, kissing him on the head as she saw her brother walk into the place. She flagged him over and he came over to her, albeit reluctantly.

"Hey Steph, what's up?" he said slowly.

"Did I miss something around here?" she asked. "Have I been walking around with my skirt tucked into my underwear or toilet paper hanging onto my shoe? Or did someone put a 'Kick Me' sign on my back?"

"No," he laughed, looking around. "You're paranoid."

"No, I'm pretty sure something happened," she told him. "What happened?"

"Oh, um…nothing."

"Don't give me that; that just pretty much sealed the deal that something went down. So tell me before I grab the nearest Joe Shmoe and drag it out of him. Did I do something? Did I mess something up? Oh God, they think the storyline between Edge and Jeff is stupid, right?"

"No, it's not that. There was an…altercation."

"Altercation? Between who? And what do I have to do with it?"

"It was between Chris and Paul."

"What?" she asked incredulously. "Were they…fighting over me or something?" She didn't dare hope that Chris would fight over her. That would be presuming and presumptions led to heartache if it didn't give you what you wanted.

"Not exactly, in a way though…I only caught the tail end of it, and what Dad told me about it, but apparently, um, Paul was saying some stuff about you to Chris, stuff like how it would be to sleep with you," Shane stage-whispered so that Finnegan wouldn't hear this adult stuff and be corrupted anymore than he was.

"He said this stuff to _Chris_?" she asked, her eyes wide. "He talked about sleeping with me to Chris?"

"You're…not sleeping with him, right?"

"Eww, no," Stephanie said. "No way. I can't believe he'd do that. That's so…what a jerk. Can you watch Finny for a moment?"

"Sure, but why?"

"I've got business to take care of," Stephanie said, turning to her son, "Finny, I need to go see someone really quick, a meeting, so you stay with Uncle Shane and I'll be back in a few minutes, I promise."

"Okay," Finnegan said, "Uncle Shane, Grandpa Vince let me help him at the gorilla today and I got to wear the phones."

"What!" Shane said, "Grandpa Vince never lets me do that!"

Stephanie walked out of catering and chose a direction. As she was walking, she happened upon Paul and Randy. Randy was examining Paul's eye and then tapped him on the shoulder and nodded in Stephanie's direction. He turned and smiled at her and she, like Chris before her, reared her hand back, but this time, she slapped Paul across the face.

"You want to know what it'd be like to sleep with me, Paul?" Stephanie sneered.

"Stephanie, what are you talking about?" Paul asked. "Did you see what your ex-boyfriend did to me? He punched me for no reason."

"No reason? Oh give it up, Paul. He told my dad what you said about me. How you wanted to sleep with me, and you said this in front of Chris. No wonder he punched you, you probably deserved more."

"He's lying, I never said that about you. I would never talk about you like that."

"Oh, so what did you say that provoked him to hit you? Let me remind you that I was with Chris for six years, so there's not a whole lot of mystery left with him. I know every detail, every embarrassing moment, I've seen every picture his parents ever took of him growing up. I know where his scars are, where his birthmarks are, I've seen the cabinet he ran into as a child, I've heard of every crush he's ever had. So tell me, Paul, what set him off?"

"I don't know, I told him I was asking you out, and he flipped. It seems like he's still jealous and wants you all to himself, but you broke up with him, so he's going to have to deal with that," Paul lied.

Stephanie grinned. "He seemed jealous?"

"No, he just thought I had an agenda, I don't have an agenda."

"You know what, we both know you're a liar. I wouldn't go out with you if the choice came between you and a frog. You're an asshole, Paul, and you've always been one. You think I don't know exactly what you want from me? All you want is a quick lay and the belt, well, I can assure you right now, you're not going to get either for a very, very long time."

"I didn't say anything to him." Stephanie walked away from him without another word. But there was one thing that stayed on her mind, and whether it was true or not, well, she'd have to find out if it were true or not. Chris could've been jealous of her, he could've been jealous that she had a date. And if that was true, that opened a whole other door to her, that explained a lot.

She still had a chance.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys, I'm glad you thought the last chapter was good, please keep reviewing and let me know what you think. :)

* * *

"_You're pregnant."_

_Stephanie sat out on the balcony of her old bedroom. She had just told her parents that she was pregnant. Well, that wasn't entirely true, she and Chris had just told her parents that they were having a baby. Her father had ushered Chris out of the room and so she had gone upstairs to collect her thoughts. She knew that even though her parents hadn't outright said to her face, they were disappointed in her. Hell, she was a little disappointed in herself._

_She turned her head to look at Shane. "Yeah, I'm pregnant."_

_Shane nodded his head, "I don't think I heard it said to you, but congratulations."_

_Stephanie gave him a smile before turning to look out at the view over suburban Connecticut. "You're the first person to say that."_

"_Out of?"_

"_Well, Mom and Dad and you were the first people we told, so I guess out of three, you were the first person to actually congratulate me."_

_He shrugged and pulled up a chair next to her. "Someone had to say it and since Mom's in shock and Dad is probably chewing out and/or firing Chris, I figured the responsibility fell on me to tell you what we're all really thinking."_

"_I doubt that right now Mom and Dad are ready to congratulate me."_

"_When they think about what they're getting they will. They're just in shock. I think they figured that you would be married before you did the whole kid thing. They're older, they're set in their ways of thinking, and their way of thinking is that you get married first and then you have the children. But that's Mom and Dad, they were what, twelve when they got married," he joked._

_Stephanie laughed, "No, that's when they met."_

"_You're twenty-six years old, that's not a child, Steph. You're an adult and you and Chris aren't a one-night stand. You've been together for over a year, you're in a real relationship, this isn't the end of the world."_

"_It sure felt like it," she told him. "I know you've never gotten a girl pregnant, Shane, but it's not like this isn't life-altering."_

"_Of course it is, but Steph, you can't tell me you aren't excited."_

_She smirked a little, trying to hold in her smile. "Once I got over the shock of it, and once I told Chris and he accepted it, we're both, we both want this baby, and that's a really strange feeling. I want this little Irvine inside of me, you know. And I know that it's going to be hard with our jobs, and I know that we're going to have to change a lot of things in our lives, like our living situation, but I really want this baby."_

"_Then you shouldn't care what anyone thinks, not Mom, not Dad, Chris's parents, friends, those snobby people our parents are friends with…you just be the best mother you can be to this kid while I get to be the best uncle this kid has ever seen. I'm going to spoil the little rugrat like you wouldn't believe and he is going to look up to me for sure."_

"_How can you be so sure of things sometimes, Shane?"_

"_Because, Stephy, I'm the big brother, and I'm supposed to protect the little sister."_

"_So shouldn't you be out kicking Chris's ass because he knocked up your little sister?"_

"_Chris is my friend, no way, I'm glad he'll be around…but if he ever, and I mean ever abandons you or your kid, if he ever acts like he shouldn't, then I'll kick his ass."_

"_That's the good thing about Chris though, he never lets you down."_

"So what did you need to see me about that was so urgent?" Shane asked as he walked into the restaurant where Chris had been waiting. Chris was sitting at a table with Finnegan next to him, coloring on the kid's menu they had given him.

"Nice greeting," Chris grumbled as the man he had considered almost like his brother sat down across from him and grabbed the menu sitting in front of him. "I called you here for a very specific reason."

"You talked to Stephanie?" he guessed, hoping that was the case. He knew that Stephanie had a habit of drawing things out and he wasn't sure if she had yet seen Chris and talked to him. After hearing her tearful confession, he knew the only way that things were going to work out was if Chris and Stephanie sat down and Stephanie told Chris about everything that she had heard and what that meant to the both of them.

"No, well…not really, you know. We've talked about Finnegan and she mentioned that she needed to talk to me, but I was busy at the time, for a reason I'll tell you in a second, but she wanted to talk to me, so we're going to talk…but later."

"That was confusing," Shane told him as the waitress came over and took their orders. "So what exactly does that mean? Does that mean you're going to talk to her?"

"Well, yeah, I want to talk to her, but there's something that I feel I need to do first before we actually sit down and talk, which is why I wanted to talk to you," Chris told him. He wiped his palms on his jeans because his palms were sweating for some reason. It wasn't like he was going to ask Shane to marry him, for God's sakes.

"Okay, I don't know what this is about if you haven't talked to Stephanie, but I guess we can get to the bottom of that if you really, really want," Shane said, wondering just why Chris invited him here.

"I'm proposing to Stephanie," Chris told him bluntly, deciding that he didn't want to beat around the bush any longer. He needed someone's help in this and since his other go-to guy, The Rock, didn't live anywhere near here, he had to go with Shane.

"Yeah, you've proposed like fifty times already," Shane guffawed. "And my sister hasn't exactly been receptive to those, has she?"

"But this one is going to be different."

"Different, you mean you're going to spring a totally different question on her, like, 'Stephanie, will you have another baby with me?' That kind of question?"

"Oh shut your mouth," Chris said, then glancing at Finnegan. "Not that I'd hate that idea. But the fact is, and I hate admitting this because it makes me look like a low-life or something, but I've never given your sister a really nice proposal."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I've never done the romantic proposal type thing, and maybe that's the reason why she hasn't said yes," Chris explained.

Shane flinched a little when Chris said that. He knew the real reason why Stephanie had never said yes to any of Chris's proposals, but he couldn't tell Chris those reasons. He couldn't fight Stephanie's battles for her, and it wouldn't be fair of him to give away his sister's secrets like that. Stephanie had to be the one to tell Chris her fears or else it just wouldn't work out. But he wanted so badly to tell Chris the truth about why Stephanie kept saying no. Chris obviously loved Stephanie very much and couldn't figure out why she would constantly turn him down.

"Well…I don't know…"

"I always kind of thought that she'd want a really casual proposal, and I admit that my first proposal was a piece of sh--" Chris bit his lip and looked down to his son, who was busy doing a maze-type game on the sheet of paper, but didn't want to swear in front of him regardless. He continued, "It was bad. It had no feeling behind it, I mean, it did."

"When _did_ you first propose?" Shane asked.

"It was like five days after Finn was born," Chris reminisced.

"Daddy, are you talking about me?" Finnegan asked as he heard his name. He turned his head up to Chris with a small smile.

"Yeah, I'm talking about the first time I asked Mommy to marry me. You were there actually. We were in your room and you were crying a lot."

"How much Daddy?"

"So much that I wanted to give you away," he joked, leaning in towards Finnegan a little.

"Give me away?" Finnegan asked with alarm. "To who!"

"Anyone who wanted you, but Mommy and I decided we'd keep you," he teased, then turned to Shane to continue. "But I was sitting against the wall watching as she tried to calm Finn down, and I don't know, she just looked so pretty that the words just came out of my mouth. Every time I've tried to propose, I just mentioned it casually because I thought that was what she wanted. I thought she would want something casual and then the opportunity to go with me to get her ring so she had some input in what she wanted. But maybe that's not the case. Maybe she wants the romantic setting and maybe she wants me to buy the ring."

"So you're going to propose?" Shane interjected.

"I can't let her go, Shane," Chris sighed, watching as Finn, bored by the conversation when it didn't revolve around him, went back to work on his puzzles. "When she went on that date, it almost ripped my heart out. Then this past Monday, when Paul hit on her and then said those things about her…I can't lose her, man, I just can't. I've spent the past six years with her and they have been the best years of my life. I've never been happier, and Stephanie makes me happy, I know that now and I knew it then. Plus, she had my kid, she willingly had my kid, how do you top that? You just don't."

"I get that, Chris, I really do, you don't have to tell me, I was there for the past six years. I just needed to know if you were going to propose."

"I am, and I'm going to do it next week, and I needed your help, will you help me?"

Shane cringed a little at the thought. He knew that Chris and Stephanie, well, mostly Stephanie, had some issues that needed to be worked through. Stephanie had only just recently figured out that there was a chance that for the past five years each and every single one of Chris's proposals had been because he wanted to propose and not because he felt some obligation to her. But she really needed to tell this to Chris and tell him what she was feeling.

"I don't know…how did you want me to help?"

"Well, I don't want you to like come up with the speech or anything," Chris chuckled, "That's Finn's and my job to do. I was just hoping that you could get her where she needed to be. I just didn't want to be like, 'Hey Stephanie, come here because I'm going to propose to you the right way,' so I was hoping that you'd help."

"I don't know, Chris, that's a tall order," Shane said uncomfortably.

"It's a tall order to make sure she gets somewhere?" Chris asked in confusion. "It's not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, it's really simple."

"Well, you know, this is your thing," Shane said.

"You can't help?"

"When is this? I'm booked in meetings all next week and I don't have a spare minute, it's a big time of year you know, we have the quarterlies and stuff like that," he lied. He just didn't want to get involved when he knew how his sister was feeling. Chris needed know. "You know, I think that you should talk to Stephanie before you propose."

"I'll talk to her when I propose," he shrugged. "I think that we can talk then."

"Well, if that's what you want to do," Shane said. "I just don't think I should get involved this time."

"Shane, please," Chris pleaded. "You don't understand how much I love your sister…she's…everything to me, man. She's the only woman I've ever loved like this and no other woman is ever going to compare to her."

Shane closed his eyes, Chris was making this very difficult for him. He wanted his sister and Chris together. "Chris, I don't know…"

"Shane, I'm begging you here. I just want my family back," Chris told him and Shane had never heard him so impassioned.

"Okay, what can I do for you?"

Stephanie was reading in the living room. The house was quiet and she missed the noise, as weird as that was. Usually she'd hear Chris and Finnegan playing around somewhere upstairs. She hated when Finnegan was at Chris's because that meant he wasn't here. She never thought she'd have to share custody with Chris, but she wasn't going to deny him the chance to be with Finnegan.

The doorbell rang and she got up to go get the door. She opened it and saw Shane and then next to him was Finnegan, she looked surprised because he was supposed to be with Chris and she knelt down as he hugged her. "Finny, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I had lunch with Chris today and he thought that you might be missing Finn so he said to bring him over here," Shane said.

Stephanie smiled at how thoughtful Chris was, "Thanks for bringing him over. Finny, did you want to go watch television?"

"I'm going to go to my room and read my books!" Finnegan said excitedly as he ran to the staircase and trudged up the stairs. Stephanie watched after him before turning to Shane.

"Thanks for bringing him over, the house just doesn't seem the same when he isn't in it," Stephanie said, giving a small smile as she glanced up towards the staircase again. "So what brings you here?"

"I was just wondering if you had spoken to Chris yet?"

"No, I haven't," she said, shifting her feet. "Why do you ask?"

"I really think you should."

"I asked him if we could talk and he told me he was busy. He said we can talk later and I'm going to take his word on that. That's all I can do, Shane. I can't force a conversation on him. That wouldn't work. I just have to…I have to wait until he's ready to talk. If I'm not too late," she mumbled.

"Too late?"

"God Shane, take one look at Chris, one good look at him. How long do you think he's going to stay single? I mean, he's always had women falling all over him, even when he was with me, even when I was so obviously pregnant with Finny, girls were still trying to steal him away. Now that he's unattached, how long until he finds some woman who makes him happy and hasn't had a kid or anything?"

"First of all, you had _his_ kid, I think that he wouldn't care what you look like since you had his child, and secondly, I don't think that's going to happen," Shane said, knowing that it was 100 unlikely to happen. Chris was getting ready to make the proposal of a lifetime to Stephanie. There was no way there'd be another woman, not after the words that Chris had said earlier.

"Still? Girls love him, and he loves girls, he can have anyone he wants."

"Trust me on this one, Steph, the only girl he wants is you, and maybe a little girl if you ever get pregnant again."

"Don't joke," she said sullenly.

"Trust me, everything will work out. You just need to talk."

"Thanks Shane," she said, hugging him. "Thanks for bringing Finny too."

"No problem, just talk to him!" Shane insisted.

Stephanie nodded and closed the door as Shane left. She looked upstairs and decided she'd have a little conversation with Finnegan. Finnegan was around Chris when she wasn't, maybe he'd have some insight. Sure, it'd be four-year old insight, but at this point she was grasping at straws. What she had said about Chris was true and that set her mind ill-at-ease. She didn't want to lose him, but it seemed only a matter of time before that happened.

Chris was a good-looking guy, you didn't need to be smart to realize that. He had only gotten better with age too, and although she hated his short hair and desperately wanted it long again (she did convince him to grow it out a little longer). And he had never wanted for women around him because they were always fawning all over him. Even when she was pregnant, actually _especially_ when she was pregnant, girls had been trying to entice him because she was pregnant and sometimes wasn't up for bedroom activities.

Now that he was unattached and without Finnegan some of the time, it had to be easier to date, and it had to be easy for him to pick up any girl he wanted. Even during their first date within the first two seconds of seeing his smile she was willing to drop her panties for him. And she knew that she wasn't the only one willing to bed Chris Irvine within minutes of seeing him. So why wouldn't he take advantage of that?

Unbeknownst to her, the reasons were her and Finnegan. She walked into Finnegan's room and saw him sitting on the ground reading from some books. He wasn't officially reading big, long books, but he could navigate his way around Dr. Suess and the like. She sat down next to him and lifted him into her lap as he held the book in front of him. She leaned her chin on his shoulder and kept silent for a few minutes.

"What's that word, Mommy?" Finnegan said, pointing to a word.

"Brick," Stephanie told him quietly.

"Thank you," he said graciously.

"Hey Finny?"

"Yeah?"

"Has there been any…girls…at Daddy's apartment?"

Finnegan scrunched up his face and nodded. "Yeah, I saw a girl there."

Stephanie could feel a drop in her stomach. "Do you know what she was doing there?"

"Uh uh," Finnegan said.

"Did you hear Daddy ever refer to her as something like, 'girlfriend,' or 'special friend,' or anything like that?" she asked.

"I don't remember," he told her as he went back to reading his book.

"Are you sure you don't remember, or are you just forgetting right now, like it might come to you later and you just don't know it?"

"Mommy," Finnegan whined. "I'm reading."

"Sorry," she mumbled. "But there was a girl there, in Daddy's apartment, did you talk to her?"

"I talked to her before," Finnegan told her, not looking at her, "but then the next time, Daddy tolded me that I had to watch TV in his room while he talked to her."

Stephanie frowned, but was pleased that they weren't in the bedroom together, "Did you see them kissing or hugging or anything?"

"I don't remember, but maybe not," he said innocently.

"Okay, well, thanks Finny," Stephanie said, kissing his cheek, then lifting him up so he was sitting on the ground again. "I need to make a phone call and then I'll be back."

She got up and went into her office, grabbing her phone as she dialed Chris's cell phone number. She needed to talk to him soon, it was imperative. She didn't want him to find someone else. She didn't think she could live with herself and by herself if she lost Chris.

"Chris Irvine speaking."

"Hey Chris, it's Steph, I need to talk to you, soon, please."

"Steph, I'm really busy, like I said."

"Chris, please," she pleaded.

"Okay…next week then," he said, thinking that it would actually eliminate the need for Shane. "That good?"

"Yeah, next week then, thanks."

Stephanie hung up the phone and nodded her head to herself. She had to make next week count. She had to convince Chris that she needed him and she had to tell the truth about the past five years. She needed clear her conscience of the demons that had been haunting her for the past five years. She needed to make things right with Chris for everyone's sake, but especially for Finnegan's sake. She needed Chris to come back home and be with her and their son. She needed her future with him.

By this time next week, she'd either have Chris back…

Or she'd have nothing.


	18. Chapter 18

_Stephanie and Chris were squeezed into one lounge chair located on the side of Vince and Linda's indoor pool. There was a small party for some of Vince and Linda's family and friends and it was a "Summer in Winter" theme since it was February in Connecticut, not exactly the ideal weather for a pool party, but they were indoors so it was all good. Stephanie was pretty pregnant at this point, eight months if you were counting. But Stephanie at this point didn't even want to look down at herself._

_She was wearing a two-piece bathing suit, one that covered up her stomach, but was still chic, even though she felt like a cow. Chris had convinced her that she looked fine, so she guessed she was inclined to believe him. She felt a little self-conscious with her stomach hanging out there for everyone to see. Which would explain why she was laying curled up in his arms as he talked to one of her cousins; she had her head buried in his neck as he rubbed her stomach, making their baby move around._

_She heard the talking cease and she looked up to see that she and Chris were alone and Chris was smiling down at her. "Hey."_

"_What?" she asked._

"_You're pretty," he said impishly. She blushed a little and rested her head against him. "So are you going to hide behind me this entire time? This is _your _family after all, I shouldn't be the one dragging you around, you should be dragging me around."_

"_I dragged you to the buffet table," Stephanie pointed out._

"_Yes, and then proceeded to train for a professional eating contest," he told her, but then rubbed her stomach a little. "Not that it's a problem, you are eating for little no-name in there too."_

"_I feel ugly," she told him candidly. "I know that's such a cliché thing to say so far into my pregnancy, but I just feel like I'm not myself, like I'm a pod person or something. I don't know why we had to come to this."_

"_Because your parents are the ones throwing the party and it would be rude if we didn't?" he suggested. "You want to go chill in the pool for a while? That way you can hide your stomach and not feel self-conscious."_

"_Let me go pee first," Stephanie said, "Help me up?"_

_Chris nodded and got off the chair, offering his hand as he helped Stephanie lift herself up out of her chair. She kissed his cheek as she walked back into her parent's house. She went down the hallway to the bathroom, all the while hearing voices from the kitchen. But when she heard her name being mentioned, she backtracked and stood next to the entryway to hear what was being said about her._

"_Did you see Stephanie's supposed boyfriend?" one of them said, and she thought she recognized the voice, but wasn't too sure._

"_Is that the alleged father of her baby?" the other voice, this one was one of her parent's friend's daughter, Elise, that much Stephanie recognized, and wherever Elise was, Felicity wasn't going to be far behind, and Stephanie placed the first voice with hers._

"_Yeah, it is, supposedly, but you know how Stephanie is and always was, the resident slut. She was the same way in high school and she's the same way now," Felicity responded. Stephanie bit her lip as she continued to listen in on this conversation._

"_Oh yeah, the girl with the bad reputation. I'd heard that she slept with all her father's associates and his wrestlers, it would definitely seem her though, she was always wanting to go on the road with him. She probably had some of them at the same time," Elise laughed._

_Stephanie kept her cool. She didn't want to reveal herself until she heard the whole of this conversation. She knew that getting pregnant out of wedlock wasn't that big a deal in normal society, but this wasn't normal society. She sometimes forgot that she lived among the snobby upper-crust of Connecticut who were so stuck in their ways of debutante balls and high teas. Most of these women "lunched" and Stephanie had never lunched in her life. She didn't fit into this crowd and she never had. Still, as with any person hearing stuff like this being talked about them, it hurt._

"_She's probably saddling this poor Chris guy," Felicity said. "It's something that I wouldn't put past her. I mean, take a look at him, he's completely gorgeous and she would latch onto someone who had the looks, and I talked with him for a couple minutes and he was so smart, I'd never have figured."_

"_Well, he is a wrestler, but he's hot."_

"_Hands off," Felicity laughed. "If there's anyone that's going to get him, it's me. I mean, seriously, even if he is with Stephanie, she's as big as a cow, and no guy wants to sleep with a cow."_

_Stephanie scurried off to the bathroom for a couple reasons. She didn't want to hear anymore, and she really did have to use the bathroom. Stephanie did her business and went back to the pool area where Chris was chatting with Shane. She walked over and wrapped her arms around him as best she could. He excused himself from Shane and pulled her towards the pool. They went into the shallow end and Stephanie sat on the steps as Chris kneeled between her legs._

"_Hey, what's wrong?" Chris asked, recognizing that Stephanie seemed more down than she had when she had left for the bathroom. "I'm telling you right now, you look beautiful."_

"_It's not that," she said, looking away from him as her eyes welled up in tears. Pregnancy hormones could really be a drag sometimes. After she had heard those girls talking, it was the one and only time during this entire pregnancy, since she had heard Chris say those fateful words, that she had wanted to be married. It was the one moment where she wished she had taken her parent's advice and married Chris just so she wouldn't have to hear people talk like that about her, like she was a slut when she hadn't even lost her virginity until she was well into her 20's._

"_Hey, hey, hey," Chris said, turning her face towards him as he leaned forward so that they were forehead to forehead. "What's wrong? Is the baby bothering you?"_

_She looked down. "There were some girls talking about me, saying stuff like you weren't my baby's father and how I was a slut and probably just snatched you to make you believe you were little Irvine's father. And how I slept with everyone in my father's company."_

_Chris set his jaw. "What girls?"_

"_It's nothing, Chris. It was just these two girls who I went to high school with, Felicity and Elise, they were just talking shit about me, it's not a big deal."_

"_It's a huge deal," Chris said to her. "They can't say that kind of stuff about you or my son. I'm going to go say something to them, how dare they…"_

"_No Chris, please don't," Stephanie begged, taking both of his hands. "Please, I don't want to cause a scene here. This is my parent's party and I really don't want to cause a scene."_

"_We can sit here for now."_

"_Thank you."_

Chris was pulling out all the stops. He was sparing no expense for Stephanie. Everything was going to be perfect for her, because she was perfect for him. He was ready and determined and he could hardly contain his excitement for the next week. By this time next week, he was going to be engaged to Stephanie, he just knew it. Everything was going to go his way this time. Everything was going to be perfect and he was going to get everything that he needed and wanted.

But first, he had something to do.

He rang the doorbell of a very familiar house and tapped his foot as he waited for someone to open the door. He saw a shadow of a person through the stained glass of the door and then someone opened the door and he smiled at the familiar person.

"Mr. Irvine, hello."

"I know you're on the clock Angie, but come on, call me Chris," he said to the long-time McMahon housekeeper. She worked four days a week for Vince and Linda, and she knew Chris very well.

"Chris," she said, rolling her eyes. "What can I do for you?"

"Is Vince here?"

"Yeah, he is here, did you want to see him?"

"Yeah, I did actually, if he's not completely busy."

"He's in his study, but I don't think that he'd mind a visitor, and you're pretty much family anyways," she said, letting him inside. "I haven't seen Finn in a while, how is the young boy? I'm sure he's growing everyday."

"He is," Chris grinned, "although if someone were to make some oatmeal raisin cookies he might grow faster. It also might make him feel better, he broke his arm the other week."

"Oh yes, Linda told me about that, that's terrible, but she said that he was fine, it was just a small fracture."

"Yeah, he thinks the cast is cool," Chris said. "Well, I'm going to talk to Vince, but seriously, oatmeal raisin cookies."

Angie smirked, "I'll see what I can whip up and send over to your house."

"Lovely," Chris said as he knocked on Vince's door and stuck his head in. "Hey Vince, I was wondering if you had a minute?"

Vince looked up, a little startled, "Chris, what are you doing here?"

"I needed to talk to you about something really important and it really can't wait, so hopefully you're not busy. If you are, you'll just have to put it aside," Chris joked.

"I'm free, come on in, you know you're welcome here. Did Angie let you in?"

"Yeah, she did," Chris said, walking into the room and taking a seat across from Vince. "Thanks for seeing me though, really."

"Chris, come on, you're like family, you know you can come talk to me," Vince told him. "So what is this in regards to?"

"It's about something I should've done about five years ago," Chris told him. "Well, no, less, a little less. It's just something that I should've done and something I regret not doing before."

"Okay, are you going to cut to the chase or are you going to ramble on for the next hour or so?" Vince asked with a chuckle.

Chris took a deep breath, "Vince, I would like to ask permission to marry your daughter. I would like your blessing."

Vince started laughing outright. "You're asking my permission?"

"I know it's cheesy and old-fashioned, but I want to do everything right by Stephanie this time. I'm going to propose to her one more time, Vince. This one I'm making count. Now, you and everyone else know that I've been asking and trying to get Stephanie to marry me. I've meant every single one of those proposals from the very first one when we were sitting in Finnegan's bedroom five days after his birth and he was crying and wouldn't be quiet. I asked her and she said it wasn't the right moment. The right moment has not come in the past five years apparently. Next week, I'm trying for the right moment, and I want to do everything right, so I'm here asking for your blessing to ask Stephanie to marry me."

"Wow," Vince said. "So you're going to try one more time?"

"If Stephanie's says no this time, then I can't do anymore. I just can't. But I love Stephanie, Vince, you know that."

"I do know that, you've stuck by her through everything, and you're here now, even after she essentially broke up with you," Vince said, impressed. "Let me ask you this, though, Chris? Why do you keep coming back? How do you know its Stephanie you want?"

"Vince, I love your daughter. When we first started dating, she was fun and adventurous like me. When she told me she was pregnant, I'm not going to lie, I got scared, and I wanted to run away," Chris told him for the first time ever, looking Vince straight in the eye. "I honestly was going to leave."

"Were you?" Vince asked, and there was no malice in his voice because obviously Chris didn't leave.

"Yeah, but when I looked at her, there's no way I could leave her because she's Stephanie, and she's the best thing that ever happened to me."

"More than Finn?"

"Same as Finn, but maybe a little bit more…something, not more in the sense that she's more important or anything, but…without her, there would be no Finn."

"You never had to ask my permission or my blessing, Chris, you know this. You've stuck with my daughter and grandson for the past six years, and you've been good to them both. I had my apprehensions about you, and if we're confessing, I wanted to kill you when you and Stephanie told me and Linda you were pregnant. I know that I kept my calm that night, but I really wanted to get a shotgun and kill you."

Chris got his chance to chuckle. "We knew you were disappointed, but you know, thanks for not killing me."

"When you and Stephanie first started seeing each other, I questioned your motives, I thought you were using her for the money and the special attention she could give you. I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. Chris, you're the only man I can imagine marrying my daughter, and you've been the best father to my grandson. And it's about damn time you made her an honest woman."

Chris laughed, "Thanks Vince, I just wanted to make sure there were no objections here. I'm going to marry Stephanie. I can feel it this time. I'm going to marry her and be with her. I need to be with her. I'm just…I'm not the same without her. She's spent the last six years getting under my skin."

"Good, because if you ever, and I'm saying, ever hurt my daughter, I _will_ get that shotgun, and you will be dead."

Chris stood up and shook Vince's hand, "I want to be dead if I ever hurt Stephanie, Vince. I want to be dead."

Vince shook his hand back, "So how are you proposing?"

"Well, I rented out a restaurant for her, and I'm going to do it there, and I'm getting a florist in there to cover the place in flowers, and Finn is going to be there, and he's preparing a speech for it too, and everything is going to be great."

"Finn's preparing a speech?"

"Well, no, the kid is really good at improvising it. But thanks Vince."

"Thank you for taking such good care of my daughter, Chris."

Chris walked out of the study with a grin on his face. Things were going swimmingly and he just had to keep calm until next week. He wanted Stephanie to get the memorable proposal that she deserved and not some ring-ding, spur-of-the-moment proposal that she thought meant nothing. So engrossed in his thoughts was he, that when he opened the door, he didn't realize someone was coming up the walkway.

"Chris?"

"Stephanie," he grinned as he walked over to her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I was talking with your dad," he said. "You know, business stuff. Where's our kid?"

"He's over at the duck pond, you know, watching the ducks, crazy kid," Stephanie said, rolling her eyes playfully. "Finny!"

"What Mommy!" Finnegan yelled from the duck pond in front of her parent's house.

"Daddy's here!" Stephanie yelled at him. "Did you park…"

"On the other side of the garage," Chris explained. Finnegan came running over and grinned at Chris. "Hey there kiddo."

"Hi Daddy," Finnegan said, hugging him, "are you coming to dinner too?"

"Well, I had things to do," Chris said. "Did you want me to stay for dinner though?"

"Well, we were going to go to dinner with my parents and Grammy Vicky. If you want to come, you know you're welcome to, it might be nice," Stephanie said with a kind smile, knowing it would make Finny happy. "So please, stay."

Chris nodded his head as he turned back towards the house.

_Chris walked inside the house and was just walking past the dining room where the drinks were when he saw one of the girls that Stephanie had introduced earlier and the one he recognized as having spoken to Stephanie. He wandered in there and tried to act nonchalant, turning his back to her. He could feel her gaze burning into his bare back and he turned to catch her staring._

"_Yes?"_

"_Sorry, you're just really handsome," Felicity said, tilting her head. "But I bet you get that a lot."_

"_It does get repetitive," he said drolly._

"_I bet," she said, coming over to him. "You know, if you're not doing anything right now, I know a little place where we can get to know each other upstairs. I'd like to get to know you better."_

"_Oh really?"_

"_Yes, and if you want to get to know me better, that'd be good too. I'm very complex."_

"_I'm kind of here with Stephanie."_

"_You _do_ know she has a reputation right? I mean, she's had it for years."_

"_What reputation is that?"_

"_She's kind of a slut," Felicity whispered, as if anyone could hear her when they were the only two people in the room together. Chris licked the front of his teeth as he heard her say that. "She's been that way since high school, really, she used to sleep with anyone and everyone."_

_Chris nodded. He knew when Stephanie had lost her virginity and it wasn't in high school. "Interesting. I never knew this."_

"_Yeah, she's probably still that way. I'd get out while you can. You don't even know if that baby is yours, I mean, for all we know, she's been sleeping around. You just have to get out now. You don't want to raise a kid that's not yours right?"_

"_No way," Chris said, playing along._

"_It'd just be a waste of your time and your money," Felicity said. "And besides, there are much better prospects out there for someone like you. You know, if you stick with Stephanie, don't be surprised if that kid looks nothing like you at all, and looks like some other guy you wrestle with."_

"_She's probably been cheating on me then," Chris said, acting incredulous._

"_Oh, definitely, definitely, she's just a whore."_

"_Yeah, I mean, first she gets knocked up and she's not even married, what's with that? I'm just the poor shmuck who fell for it."_

"_Yeah, she's not married, her parents must want to disown her. We just don't do things like that around here."_

"_Yeah, so what's your story? Are you taken or do you invite offers from guys to go out to dinner?" he asked._

"_I definitely invite offers," she smirked._

"_Well, let me tell you a little secret before we do anything else, okay?" he asked, leaning in closer to her. _

_She smiled seductively at him before running a perfectly manicured finger down his bare chest. "I love secrets."_

"_If you ever, and I mean ever call the woman I love a slut or a whore again, I will make sure that you never get a guy to even look in your direction, it's amazing the power of gossip, as I'm sure you know. I spread a little STD rumor about you and no one's going to want to touch you. And as for that baby she's carrying, you're lucky you're a woman because that's my son in there and I don't take too kindly to people talking shit about my son." Felicity gulped as she looked into Chris's suddenly dangerous eyes. "Stephanie is anything but a slut, but I'm sure you can just look in the mirror to find the true meaning of the word."_

_Felicity huffed and opened her mouth and sputtered, "You're a jackass!"_

"_That's the best you've got? Wow, so what they say about rich heiresses is true...all style, no substance." He chuckled as he watched Felicity walk away. Nobody was going to talk like that about his girlfriend or his son. _

Stephanie never found out about the incident and he never told her. It was the little things she missed. She never got the full story of Chris's love for her, but she would find out soon enough. If he had to relay every story he had that proved his love, he would do it for her. As she helped Finnegan cut his chicken, he couldn't help but stare at her. She was the same Stephanie he had fallen in love with forever ago. She was the same Stephanie he had defended and stood by. Stephanie stole a glance at him and saw him stare at her. She felt a little self-conscious to be sitting across from him, and he was staring at her weirdly.

If only she knew how many times Chris had loved her when she wasn't looking.


	19. Chapter 19

"Daddy, where are we going?"

Chris looked in the rearview mirror at Finnegan who was looking out his own window intently. Chris smiled and turned his eyes back to the road. "We're going to get you some clothes that Mommy will like," Chris explained. "We're doing something special for Mommy next week."

"What are we doing?"

"We're going to ask Mommy to marry us," Chris told him, "but you have to promise that you'll keep this a secret from her, like we talked about before."

"But why?"

"Because if you didn't then it wouldn't be much of a surprise, would it?" Chris said.

"I don't know," Finnegan responded cutely, shrugging his shoulders. "Is Mommy going to marry me too?"

"Sort of, you know how my last name is Irvine, and your last name is…"

"Finnegan Irvine!" Finnegan exclaimed with the exuberance of a child.

"Right," Chris responded. "But what's Mommy's last name?"

"Mommy's name is Stephanie McMahon."

"Yeah, so when we ask Mommy to marry us, she'll change her name to Stephanie Irvine--"

"Like us!"

"Yeah, so it's kind of an official way to accept Mommy into our family. When we ask her, it's kind of like we're asking her to be our family, but in an official way, since Mommy is already our family, but we want to be a family that's legal."

Finnegan nodded soberly, "I want Mommy to marry us, Daddy."

"Well, I should hope so," Chris joked. "It wouldn't be too good if you didn't want Mommy to marry me. I already asked Grandpa Vince and he said that it was okay."

"Daddy, does it mean you can come home cause I miss you and so does Mommy."

"Yeah, I'll be coming home," he paused and actually digested his son's words. "Wait, did you say that Mommy said that she missed me?"

That was a new development, but he shouldn't have been surprised. Their house was huge and they were only three people to begin with so to be a man down, it made the house much bigger and there was somehow more space to fill. But maybe there were other implications to Stephanie missing him. He was sure that their problems could be overcome. They never really had many problems during their relationship, which just made their non-marriage even stranger. Sure, they fought, they were good at that, but at the end of the day, they still loved each other and they still loved Finnegan.

Whatever was holding back Stephanie would just have to be resolved. Finnegan spoke up, "Mommy was asking lots of questions 'bout you."

"Questions? Why would Mommy ask questions about me, she knows everything about me."

"I don't know, Daddy."

"What was she asking?"

"About girls," Finnegan answered. "Daddy, can we hear your CD?'

"In a sec, Finn, Mommy was asking about girls? Like girls with me?"

"I think so, I don't remember everything, Daddy," Finnegan said with his version of childlike sarcasm.

Chris had to laugh at that. Here he was, grilling his four-year old son. And by the sounds of it, Stephanie had been grilling him too. It was really sad though, but it just proved further what Chris already knew, Stephanie loved him.

That fact had been a little bit in doubt since the break-up, but Chris had no choice but to believe she loved him. He had heard what she had done to Paul, and when he had heard it, he had to grin. That was the Stephanie he knew and loved. Then to defend him like that proved it all. Just as he had been willing to protect her, she was the same way. God, she was the perfect woman.

"Okay, here we are," Chris said as he pulled up to the mall. "Where are my sunglasses?"

"So you don't have to sign graphs, Daddy?" Finnegan asked, because he knew that sometimes his daddy was bombarded with people. He was used to it by now, though when he was around one and two, he got terrified by the magnitude of people.

"Yup, this is Daddy/Finn time," Chris told him as he looked back at Finnegan with a smile. Finnegan gave him a big smile back. Chris found his sunglasses and put them on and opened his door to get out before helping Finnegan out of the car.

Finnegan loved to go places with Chris. It made him feel like a big kid and made him feel important. It was important to both Stephanie and Chris that they made Finnegan feel like he was the most important thing in their lives. They each knew that their jobs were hectic and often stretched them thin, but they never wanted Finnegan to think that he came second. Their son came second to nothing or nobody.

"Daddy, can we get cookies?" Finnegan asked as he took Chris's hand.

"I don't want to spoil your lunch, but I think that we can get a cookie each, but let's go shopping first, that way we can be as messy as we want when we get our cookies."

"Okay," Finnegan said as they walked inside.

They headed straight for shopping for Finnegan, not stopping until they got to the store. Chris was proud as Finnegan took charge when they stepped into the store. "Daddy, Mommy like this?" Finnegan asked repeatedly as he looked through the racks and racks of clothes. Chris laughed and started to pick a few things that looked good.

"_Chris, do you think our baby will like me?"_

"_I don't think that is a thing that you should worry about."_

"_But it could happen," she reasoned. "He could hate me and not want me to hold him and stuff. He could like throw things at me."_

_Chris laughed, "Or he could adore you like most of us do. I think the odds are in your favor."_

"_I just want him to like me. I just want the chance to be a good mom. I'm worried that I'll blow my chance. I want him to like me is all."_

"_I see a little boy who is intent on making his Mommy proud because, above anyone else, he loves you. I think any guy, if they get a few moments with you, would fall for you in a second. The minute you hold our son in your arms, he's going to be a goner. Kind of like me on our first date."_

Chris and Finnegan's shopping trip was quite productive. They bought the young boy a pair of black pants and a button-down dress shirt so that he would match Chris during the proposal. As they walked out of the mall, he noticed that it was beginning to rain. That turned out to be an understatement later that evening when the heavens decided to open up and the rain poured down. A severe thunderstorm was what they called it, but whatever the name, it was no fun to have the lights constantly flickering.

"Okay Finn, time for bed," Chris said as the little boy lay on the couch.

"Do I have to?" he whined.

"Yes, or else I'm going to get someone to come help me put you to bed," Chris said ominously.

"Who?" Finnegan asked curiously.

"Oh, just The Undertaker," Chris said nonchalantly, referring to Mark's character, which just happened to be Finnegan's #1 fear. Finnegan's lip started to tremble as Chris said who he was going to bring.

Finnegan scurried off the couch and into his bedroom, climbing under the covers as Chris walked into the room. "Don't call Undertaker, Daddy!"

"Well…okay," Chris said, coming over to tuck him in. Chris pulled the covers more tightly around his son and then kissed his cheek, "Goodnight you."

"Night Daddy," Finnegan told him as he shifted around trying to get comfortable in the bed that he wasn't quite used to yet, and hopefully wouldn't have to get used to any time soon.

Chris stood up and turned off the light and closed the door partially. He went into his own, hopefully also temporary, bedroom and pulled out Stephanie's ring, staring at it as he listened to the rumble of thunder in the distance. He wasn't a schmaltzy, sentimental man, but he couldn't help but grab the picture frame next to his bed, which contained a picture of Stephanie and Finnegan after he had won the WWE Championship upon his return to the company. It was backstage and he had just walked through the curtains with his new belt and was greeted by two identically excited faces.

The first thing that Chris did upon winning the title, you ask? Well, the very first thing he did was hand it to Finnegan, who took it eagerly, if not a little clumsily since it was a little heavy for him to carry. He didn't know who had taken the picture, but someone had snapped a shot of Finnegan looking amazedly at the big, gold belt and Stephanie kneeling next to him, pointing at the belt and talking to him. The picture was going to go on the WWE website, but Chris decided he wanted a copy all to himself so instead they had put up a picture of Finnegan and Stephanie hugging him, which had happened moments later. Needless to say, he loved the picture.

"Daddy?" came a small voice from the door.

"Hey Finn, what's up?"

"The booming," he answered pitifully, Lionheart hanging off to his side.

"Oh, the thunder and lightning?" Chris asked. Finnegan nodded, "Well, why don't you join me?"

"Yeah?"

"Hop on up," Chris said, scooting over in his bed. He switched off the light and stuck Stephanie's ring in his drawer as Finnegan climbed in bed with him. He laid down, deciding that since he was already ready for bed, he might as well go to bed. Finnegan cuddled up to his daddy, seeking solace from the storm as Chris laid there, looking up at the ceiling watching the lightning make strange patterns upon it.

This wasn't where he imagined his life to be exactly. But then, you never really get what you expect in life. You're thrown curveball after curveball and you just try to get a hit every now and again. Before Stephanie, he pictured the marriage, the kids, the life. After Stephanie and after Finnegan, he knew that his life was simply the two of them. He didn't need anything else. His eyes were getting heavy and Finnegan's rhythmic breathing was lulling him to sleep when there was a knock on the door. Chris tensed, it was almost midnight and he wasn't expecting visitors and nobody had been buzzed up. He carefully maneuvered to get out of bed without waking Finnegan before heading to the door. He opened it and was shocked to see Stephanie, clad in some pajama pants and her old Boston University sweatshirt.

"Steph, what's wrong?"

"That house is scary during a storm. I swear I was hearing sounds and I got scared and I had nowhere else to go. Shane and my parents are all in Florida and I couldn't wake up Grammy Vicky, and I remembered that you gave me your key for emergencies," she told him, explaining why nobody had been buzzed up. "I know I sound pathetic, but--"

Chris stepped forward to hug her, "Come here."

She hugged him back, "I'm sorry, I'm intruding, I didn't mean to, it's just with a 10,000 square foot house and four acres of land, that's a lot for one person."

"You don't have to explain it to me, I know how you get during storms when they're really bad."

She just let him hold her for a moment, glad that he hadn't turned her away and hoping he wasn't here with some woman. He led her into his apartment and she sat down on the couch as Chris got her some water. She looked around, trying to find any evidence of a female being around. She didn't see any as Chris came back.

"That house can be kind of creepy when you're alone," he said with a lazy smile.

"Yeah," she said, shivering as she thought about the storm and her house, her big, empty house.

"I'd give you my bed to sleep in, but it's occupied," he told her, "And the person in it kind of, you know, takes up space."

Stephanie's mind suddenly conjured up images of different women in Chris's bed. God, what if she had invited herself over and Chris had a woman…a girlfriend over? Maybe he just snuck her up here after Finnegan went to bed since he went to bed early enough. She suddenly felt foolish for being frightened. If he had a woman here, she'd be the third wheel, a very awkward third wheel.

"Oh, if you don't have room, I can just go back home."

"You're scared though and I have room, can you sleep by yourself or do you need protection?"

"Really Chris, now I'm just imposing on you," she said, standing up. "I'll just--" She couldn't finish as a flash of lightning and immediate clap of thunder made her jump.

"Okay, come on," he said, pulling her towards the bedroom. "We'll just all have to squeeze in."

Stephanie looked horrified as Chris led her to the bedroom. If she hadn't lost her logic in the face of thinking she had lost Chris, she would've seen the truth. She tried to pull away, but couldn't, letting him open the door. She closed her eyes, being pulled in against her will, but she couldn't find it in herself to figure out how to protest.

"Yup, just as I expect, took up all the room," Chris laughed quietly.

Stephanie dared to open her eyes and look and saw Finnegan sprawled out on one side of the bed. She let out a huge sigh of relief and just stared at her son. He was laying on his back, his legs and arms going in all directions, his little blue cast above his head. Stephanie let herself laugh, both out of relief and the cute picture Finnegan made.

"Seems I've got two scaredy-cats on my hands," Chris said. "I think we can both squeeze in though, unless that bothers you…"

"No, it doesn't," she said immediately. No, the idea of spending the night in the arms of the man she loved wasn't unappealing at all.

Stephanie climbed into the bed first, laying in the middle. As if sensing a presence in the bed with him, Finnegan cuddled up close to Stephanie. His arm landed smack on her hip as she laid on her side. Chris climbed in behind her. Since Finnegan was taking up so much space, Chris and Stephanie only had limited space with which to work with. Chris wrapped his right arm around Stephanie's waist. He moved so his body was pressing against hers.

"Still scared?" he asked as they settled in and Stephanie's head buried itself into the pillow.

"I'm good," she told him. And that was the truth. She hadn't felt this good in the past month. Being with her family felt better than most anything.

"Good," he replied, feeling pretty perfect as well. He tightened his hold on Stephanie as they both watched Finnegan sleep in the quick flashes of light from outside.

"He's handsome huh?" Stephanie commented quietly as they both lay awake. Neither one was willing to give in to sleep and lose this perfection.

"Gets that from you," Chris told her. "He's so you. He's the best."

"He is the best."

Chris sighed as he reached up his hand and gently and tenderly brushed some of her hair over her ear. Stephanie closed her eyes briefly, falling into the moment. Moments like these were the ones you hid away for when your heart needed to be picked up. Despite it all, it just came down to the two of them.

"Steph, what are we doing?" he wondered.

"We're lying down."

"I mean in our lives. Look at the two of us. We're supposedly not together, but we're right where we started."

"Oh…"

"I can't escape you."

"Do you want to? Do you want to escape me? If that's what you want…"

"That's just the thing, Steph, I can't escape you. I will never escape you, not with that person hogging the bed over there in our lives. We'll always be connected through him."

"He wasn't in the plan," she whispered, running her hand through his soft, brown hair.

"There never _was_ a plan."

"Touché."

Chris pressed a kiss just below her ear. It was innocent enough, but was still enough to make her heart race. Chris moved to her jaw, pressing another chaste kiss to her warm skin. His hold of her tightened even more until they were firmly smashed together. Their bodies were just warm against each other, drawing different things from the other.

"Chris, what are you doing?" she breathed as she received another kiss.

"Kissing you," he mumbled against her skin. "Is that not allowed? Should I stop kissing the mother of my child?"

"Yes…no…I don't know," she mumbled. "No, don't stop, Chris."

Chris smiled against her skin. She was giving him permission to continue. He never thought he'd be so happy to get permission to kiss Stephanie before. But that's just what he felt. He was happier than he had been in the last month. This was how it was supposed to be, maybe not here, maybe not in this room, in this apartment, but this, being with Stephanie, kissing her whenever he wanted to, holding her tightly, this was how it was always supposed to be. This was how their lives should be, just this moment, played in a continual loop for the rest of his life.

He felt compelled, everything was coming together. Everything was coming together for him, and the moment was perfect. With the storm raging outside, it made the room feel even smaller. The glimpses of Stephanie when the lightning flashed were enticing. For some reason, it made her more beautiful than he had ever seen her, and that was a bold statement. He felt right, this felt right, not a restaurant, not flowers, not him on his knee, this moment felt more right than any of that.

"Stephanie," he said, turning her so she was on her back. She looked up at him curiously. He took her hands in his and hovered over her until he was pressed cheek to cheek with her. He whispered gently into her ear. "Stephanie, will you please, please marry me?"

Stephanie tensed up. Nothing was resolved, she came to realize in that moment. Nothing was resolved and she hadn't talked to Chris. She needed to get everything out in the open before she said yes to him. She needed to know the truth. She breathed out a little and smelled his aftershave as it hit her nose. She wanted to give in, but she had to stay strong. She pulled away so she was facing him.

"Chris, no," Stephanie started, but by the time she was going to finish his sentence, Chris was gone. He had gotten up quickly and was out of the room, grabbing a sweatshirt on his way out. He was pulling it on as Stephanie got out of bed quickly. She ran out into the large room and saw Chris trying to put on his shoes. "Chris, wait."

"No Steph, I can't do this anymore, I'm sorry. This is it for me, okay. I've put myself out there time and time again and I can't do this anymore. I can't have you the way I want to, and yet I can't live without you. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I can't be with you. What is it going to take, Stephanie! Huh, why can't I be what you want! Why am I not enough!"

"Chris, please, just don't go, please," she begged as Chris pulled his other shoe on. "Chris, you don't get it, please, just stop."

"No, I can't do this anymore. This is it, I tried one last time, I promised myself I'd do it one last time and if you said no, I'd stop. I tried, you said no, I'm stopping. This is it, I can't do this anymore. Finn is our only link from now on."

"Chris, stop!" Stephanie yelled. "Stop! I didn't say no to your proposal, not yet. I need to talk to you."

"I'm done talking, I'm sorry, I'm done, I can't do this anymore. You don't know how you're tearing me up inside. You don't know what it's like…you just don't. You don't know what this is doing to me, what you're doing to me."

Chris got up and went towards the door. Stephanie had to stop him. She had to stop him and talk to him. She didn't want to lose him. She just wanted to talk to him, she needed to get it all out in the open. She tried to grab his arm, but he pulled away at the last second. She frowned and he headed towards the door.

"Chris, where are you going?"

"Out, please be gone when I come back."

"I'm not leaving Finny alone," she told him.

"Fine, I'll be outside, get out now so I can come back up here and watch our son," Chris said coldly, heading for the door. This time, Stephanie grabbed a hold of his arm and held it in hers firmly. Chris turned to her. "Let go of me."

"I thought you didn't love me for five years!"


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, I hope you enjoy the next couple chapters, leave a review and make me happy. :)

* * *

Lightning is a strange thing, even beyond the scientific explanations for it. It lights up the whole sky, and for a brief moment, things are revealed, people are revealed, just for a second. It gives you glimpses, glimpses to a scene, a life, a memory.

Chris's hand was on the doorknob. He was getting ready to open the door and go outside to wait for Stephanie to leave. He had asked her one last time in what he thought was the best moment, the most perfect moment, and she had said no. He was devastated, devastated that she had said no to him again. And he had to get out of there or risk losing her and Finnegan forever. If he blew up the way he wanted to blow up then she would take Finnegan and never let him see his son again, and then she had uttered the words. Then she had uttered the words that were now ringing in his brain.

"I thought you didn't love me for five years!"

And then the confusion began. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. He couldn't believe the words that had just come out of her mouth. Was she serious with this? Had she really just said something like that to him? He just couldn't believe that she would say something like that, that she would _believe_ something like that. It just didn't compute in his brain.

"How can you say something like that!" Chris said angrily, gaining his bearings back. "How can you even think that!"

"Chris, that came out wrong," Stephanie said, pursing her lips. "It wasn't supposed to sound like that."

"Didn't love you for five years? What, you think I was just dithering around like a jackass waiting for something better to come along or something, how could you think I didn't love you for five goddamn years?"

"Chris, please let me rephrase that better, I know that I can rephrase that better," Stephanie said. "I know that you love me, I know you do, and that's fine and everything, but it's just…I didn't think you loved me enough, or for the right reasons."

"What? Me doing everything for you wasn't enough? Me coming back to wrestling for you wasn't enough? What was enough, huh, Stephanie? If I had been fucking enough would you have married me?" he demanded to know. So it was that he wasn't good enough, he knew that now. He wasn't good enough for her.

"No, Chris, please, can we sit down and talk about this, there's a lot that I have to say, and I don't want to stand here and say it. I want to sit down and talk, really talk this out. I just need to talk this out with you, really," she begged, trying to pull his arm towards the couch.

"Why? It's over, you said it over a month ago and I'm just finally starting to see what you were saying. We are on two different planes, we are on two different roads leading to two different places. I'm getting too old to deal with this, Stephanie. I need some stability in my life, and I want a wife, and I want more kids, and if that's not happening with you, then I need to go out there and make myself happy. Obviously your idea of what'll make you happy and what'll make me happy are different."

"No, Chris, I never wanted it to be over," she told him, and sighed, going towards the couch. "I just…you wouldn't understand okay? But if you want to go, just go, if you want to find some woman that will make you happier than do that, just go…"

Chris turned to the door as Stephanie sat down on the couch. She was trying valiantly not to cry, and her lip was actually quivering as she kept the tears at bay. The flashes of lightning weren't helping either. They made her look even sadder, and after lying in bed, her hair was frizzy and she looked disheveled, like she was a lost girl. Her hand was over her mouth, trying to keep in the sobs and she sat still.

She had just given him permission to find another woman. "You want me to find someone else?" She was silent for a few minutes before speaking, lowering her hand from her mouth, but still not looking over at him.

"If you think there's someone out there that will make you happy," she said, but her voice was small. "You deserve that chance, you've always deserved that chance. I screwed it up for you five years ago, so you should get that chance."

Chris walked over to the couch and sat down next to her. "What do you mean by that, Stephanie? What do you mean you screwed it up for me?"

"I got pregnant," she said plainly, looking down. "I never meant to get pregnant, I didn't meant it at all."

"I know," he said. "And it wasn't as if you were some sort of miracle-worker and got pregnant on your own, I was there, I helped. It wasn't entirely you, it was the both of us."

"But I should've been more careful or something, I…believed that the reason you stayed with me for the past five years was over Finny. I believed that you never loved me, not the same way I loved you. I took your future, Chris."

"Stephanie, stop saying that!" Chris said. "You didn't take my future, you didn't take anything."

"I'm giving you a chance to have your future, I'm giving you a chance to do what you want to do, and find someone who is better than me," she insisted.

He narrowed his eyes as the lights flickered again. He hadn't turned on many lights, just the one in the kitchen, but the flickering created a strange atmosphere in the room. It was almost like they were stuck in some bunker somewhere. But it was just a flickering light and it was just a stormy night, but they were hashing out everything, and the atmosphere was as charged as the lightning striking outside.

"Is this about that guy you went out with?" Chris asked suspiciously. Maybe she _had _lied and she had had a good time with that stooge. Maybe she did have a boyfriend or some guy lined up to be her boyfriend and she was just lying to him now. _Now_ Chris had lost all sense of logic, so you were left with two people thinking rather illogically.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"That guy, the guy in Toronto, whatever guy you went out with when Trish was taking care of Finn," Chris said accusingly. "You're seeing him, aren't you? All of this shit your spewing to me right now, it's all because _you_ want to go see other guys right!"

"Chris!" Stephanie said sternly, but Chris was pacing the room again and she could feel that the fight was still brewing and she wasn't going to get out the truth any time soon.

"No, it makes perfect sense," he muttered loudly so she could hear. "You want to set me free, or some such bullshit because you have a guy out there. You want me to find someone so you don't feel bad that you already have someone. You probably lied to me, didn't you!"

"Lied! I never lied," Stephanie yelled, standing up, and she was briefly surprised that Finnegan hadn't woken up yet with all the yelling, but the little boy was a pretty heavy sleeper, had been since he was a baby. "I didn't lie to you about that, Chris."

"Then why would you want me to see someone else if you didn't have someone lined up, or if you didn't want to see other people? You were the one who went on a date. Here I am, sitting and wasting away for you, and you're out there, having dinner with men who you don't know at all, men who aren't me!" he told her, the last part making her heart ache just the tiniest bit.

"Yes, I went on a date because I convinced myself that I could get over you," Stephanie said. "Because I knew that…I knew that you should try to get over me, that you should go out and find someone."

"I don't want to find someone, I had you!" he told her angrily.

"But you didn't want me! You just didn't, you never wanted me. I was just giving you what you wanted! I was giving you the chance to find someone you wanted to be with, which obviously wasn't me! I tied you down!"

"No, you didn't!"

"Yes, I did!"

"Stop putting goddamn words in my mouth!" he yelled at her.

"It's the truth," she insisted. "Shane tried to tell me I was wrong, but hearing the way you're talking, I know it now, you never wanted a future with me, I heard you!"

"You heard me what!" he yelled, standing up because this was turning more heated and he couldn't sit still. "What the hell compelled you to think that I was being insincere? I fucking proposed to you!"

"Five days after Finny was born when we were sitting in his room while he was crying! You only wanted to marry me because of Finny!" Stephanie yelled, losing all sense of herself and what Shane had told her. Her hurt was coming to the forefront and fueling her harsh words. "You only proposed because of Finny!"

"You don't know that!" Chris said, staring her down. "You don't know why the hell I proposed. I proposed because I loved you, though why I loved you is becoming a bit hazy at this point."

"Because I gave you a son, because I carried your baby. Do you know how it felt, Chris? Do you know how it felt to just be having fun with your boyfriend, and no serious commitments going on, and he's great with that, he's fine with living from day-to-day, in fact, that's just how he wants it, and then you get pregnant? Then you're thinking, well, what now, and your boyfriend gets told and suddenly it's all about commitment and moving in together and having a future together…do you know how it feels to know that your boyfriend only wanted that because you were carrying his child?"

"Well, what was I supposed to do, run away?"

"You wanted to," she pointed out, and it was free from malice and accusation, she was simply telling the truth because she knew that he had wanted to run away, he had the decency to tell her the truth.

"Yeah, but I didn't, so what, I started thinking of the future, I started planning, so what?"

"Because there's no way that you would've started planning if it hadn't been for Finny, don't lie, Chris, you know that if there had been no Finny, then you wouldn't have moved in with me, we'd continue to have fun until one of us realized that it was getting boring, probably you, and then you'd dump me. Finny was the reason you stayed."

"You don't know that," he said, frustrated now. "You don't know that I didn't plan my future with you. My future was always with you."

"No, it wasn't, I heard you…I was going to keep Finny from you," she said suddenly. "I wasn't going to tell you, I honestly thought about it for a while. I was just going to raise Finny by myself, so that you wouldn't have to deal with the dreaded future. Chris, I took your future from you."

"No, you didn't," he insisted. "You didn't take anything from me, you gave me something so incredible. I love that little boy, Stephanie, I wouldn't trade him back for anything. I wouldn't go back in time because I love that little kid more than I've loved anyone on this Earth."

"And that's why you stayed," she told him, looking towards the ceiling. "You stayed because of Finny."

"Where are you getting these ideas!" he demanded.

"I just know, okay!"

"How the hell do you know!"

"You told Edge you didn't see a future with me!" she yelled and then she slumped down on the couch, willing the tears not to come like they had with Shane. She wanted to disappear right then and there. "You didn't see one, and then the next week, I'm telling you I'm pregnant and suddenly there's the future, there's the entire future, the house and being together, and why? It was all because you found out I was pregnant, what happens if I wasn't, huh? You would've dumped me and I would've been devastated. So I held myself back. For five years, I've held myself back because if you didn't see a future with me then, time will not change your mind…"

"I said that?"

"You said that," she confirmed.

"Stephanie…I didn't see a future with you," he said, coming over to kneel in front of her. "Because I didn't see a future, period. I loved being spontaneous with you, I loved the idea that at any given moment, I was going to do something crazy with you. Hell, if the mood had struck us, I would've hopped on a plane to Vegas and married you. That doesn't mean that in the long run, I wanted to break up."

"But you…with Finny, you only proposed after he was born, when I was holding him."

"You know, I once told Amy that the only reason I was going to propose would be because I wanted to marry you, and not because I had to marry you. You said that wasn't the right moment, and even though it felt pretty right to me, I didn't press the issue. I've been trying for the past four and a half years to get you to marry me because I want to marry you, not because I have to."

"You don't want to marry me, Chris, you really don't," Stephanie said. "I never even gave you a chance. I tied you down and wouldn't let you go. I know that you've…I just never gave you the chance to see if someone would make you happy. If we didn't have Finny--"

"If we didn't have Finn, I'd still love you, and I'd still be here. Please don't misinterpret what I said to Edge five years ago," he told her. "Take into account the last six years, the last four with Finn, think about those times, Steph, do you really think you were holding me back?"

"I didn't think you loved me like I loved you."

"I thought the same thing, I thought I wasn't good enough for you," he said.

"Not good enough…not true at all. So I've been living a lie these past five years then?" she said, broken-heartedly.

"Steph, I've loved you, and you've always been like…the one woman I'd want to spend the rest of my life with, that sounds dumb and cheesy, but it's true. I'm sorry that you didn't hear what I said in the correct way, and that we lost some years because of it that we could've been married…but…"

"When Shane told me I probably misinterpreted what you meant, I was a little wary to believe it, only because I'd spent so long believing it," she said quietly. "Even when I hear it from you, straight from the source, I don't know, it's still a little hard to believe."

"What is it going to take, Stephanie?" he asked, and there was a bit of frustration in his voice now. "What is it going to take to show you that I love you more than anything?"

"I don't know," she said honestly. "I've just had my mind so set on the fact that you were eventually going to leave me. I always left that part of myself locked away from you, so that my heart wouldn't be so broken when you did leave. I don't know what to do now."

"I need something, Stephanie," Chris told her, and the anger was rising in his voice again, against his will though. He didn't want to be mad at Stephanie, but he needed to know there was a chance. He just needed that one chance. "I need to know what I can do, because I've done everything I could think of to show you that I love you. And I do love you, Stephanie, and I haven't been with you these past five years just because you happened to carry my son."

"It's just so much to take in, Chris. It's so much to have everything you've believed in for so long taken away just like that. It's not so much that I've been living a lie, it's just the fact that I need time to adjust to this. I don't know," she rambled, running her hands over her face. "I don't know anything anymore. I don't know who I am, or where I'm going, or what part you play in all of this."

"I'm here, Stephanie, look around. Who is always here for you? I am," he told her. "I've stuck around. I can't do any more than that. I've tried to be the best boyfriend that I could be for the past six years, and I hope I've done okay, and I've tried to be a good father to Finn, I don't know if I'm succeeding in that, but I'm trying. I'm here, Stephanie, that's the most I can do. The most I can do is be here for you."

"I'm a pain in the ass," she said with a teary laugh. "I thought that you didn't love me like I loved you. I thought that I had done something wrong to make you think that you didn't want a future with me."

"You never did anything wrong," he said, sitting back down with her again. "Stephanie, you've been perfect. I love you so much."

"I love you too," she said softly, her voice barely heard from the raging storm outside.

"Good, that's a start," he said with a small smile. "And as for a finish…"

"What?"

Chris got up and went into his bedroom and walked back out, carrying something in his closed palm. He knelt down in front of Stephanie and took her left hand. He grinned up at her and she covered her mouth with her hand again. He licked his lips a little before clearing his throat nervously. He took a deep, calming breath and she did the same.

"Stephanie Marie McMahon, you've given me things that I never thought I'd get, namely a little boy named Finn. I love _you_ for you though, not because we have a son. You are a great person and I just want to marry you, so please, will you?"

"Chris," she sighed. "I feel like we just got everything out in the open. I want to continue this discussion. I need time to think about how this change, how finding out the truth changes my perception. I need more time."

Chris groaned, "God, Stephanie, it's like nothing I can ever do is right, it's like nothing is ever good enough for you! I don't know what to do! I don't know what the right words are. I need to go for a walk, I need time alone because I don't know if I can give you more time. I'm through with this more time. I just don't think you want to marry me. Stephanie, I think that I can't take it anymore, I'm sorry. I'm sorry but I can't, this is it."

Chris stood up and went to the door again. He didn't know what Stephanie wanted, but he thought that he had finally understood, only to have her reject him again. He sighed and turned to her again. "You don't know what every single rejection has done to me, Steph. I've questioned myself over and over again, wondering if I was ever going to be what you wanted. I wondered endlessly whether I could ever be what you wanted. I'm finally figuring out that I can't be. Maybe you thought that I was with you for Finn, but did it ever occur to you that I thought you were with me for that reason too?"

"You thought that I was with you because of Finny?"

"Of course I did. After every failed proposal, I started to think it more and more. Like maybe she rejected me because she's going to dump me one day. Maybe Finn is the only reason she's with me, just to let him have his father be here. I went through that everyday, but I didn't leave, I kept trying. But maybe you _were_ only with me for Finn, and you just now realize it. I tried it all, Stephanie, but maybe the only reason you clung to the belief that I was with you for Finn, was because you knew that he was the only reason for you to be with me."

Chris finished that painful speech and holding back all the hurt that threatened to crumble his very soul, he went to the door and unlocked it and turned the knob. He didn't know where he was going, but he was going anywhere he could find some semblance of peace. He needed to think and come to a conclusion that would help him and help Finnegan. Stephanie was going to be out of the picture now and he had to look to years and decades without her. The thought was certainly a painful one, but it was now his reality, and he would have to learn to accept it as his own.

"Chris, wait."

"No," he said quietly.

"Please?" she asked, standing up so she was a few feet behind him.

"Why?" he asked harshly. He didn't need more words. Words were starting to hurt more than any match he had ever been in. They were killing him slowly inside with the weight. The sound of her voice was cutting him, piercing him in ways that didn't hurt, but pricked, and soon the pricking would be too much and he would succumb to the numbing pain. But he would hear this one last thing from her and then be done with it all.

"Marry me?"


	21. Chapter 21

For the second time, Chris was left speechless.

Here he was, in almost the exact same position, but instead of hearing some crazy confession from her, she was telling him something that he couldn't quite believe. Instead of the desperation and anger that he heard when she had confessed that she didn't think he loved her the same way he loved him, he heard a hopefulness and a gentleness in her voice when she said the two words that he had been saying for years.

He turned to her and closed his eyes, "Wh…what did you say?"

"Marry me," Stephanie said. Chris opened his eyes slowly, looking at her through the dim light streaming in from the kitchen. He looked at her as another bolt of lightning briefly seemed to make the room glow. Maybe everything was glowing right now.

"I don't…I don't understand," Chris said, looking at her earnestly now. "You just said that you needed time. You just said that you needed to think…are you just trying to get me to stay? Because if that's why you're doing this, then that's really cruel, Stephanie."

"Have you ever had one of those moments where you see yourself doing something, and it's like you're watching yourself do something stupid?"

"I guess so," he said, confused, wondering why she would confuse him like this. Did he really deserve the torture like this? He didn't deserve to have his chain yanked like he was her pet or something. He had feelings, and if she was just fucking around with him right now, it was the meanest torture she could think of.

"Well, you proposed, and I'm like, watching myself saying no. Then I'm thinking to myself, 'Stephanie, what the hell are you doing? This man says that he's loved you this entire time and he's always seen a future with you, and this was your biggest fear and he just dispelled it,' and my body is like, still frozen and the words won't come out right, and I'm just thinking I'm a complete idiot for saying no and I need to be slapped upside the head. And since slapping myself wouldn't work, and you slapping me would probably knock me out cold, I had to mentally slap myself. Marry me, Chris, marry me because I love you and Finny, and I love our life."

"You want to marry me?" Chris asked, his voice even, but trying to hold back the hope that was starting to creep inside of him.

She nodded, "I want to marry you, Chris. I've been an idiot. If I'd just talked to you, then this could've all been cleared up. I've wanted to marry you since the first time you asked, but I always wanted to give you the option to leave me, because I thought that you would take it. Now that I know you wouldn't take that option, it changes everything."

"You've always wanted to marry me?" he asked, still too stunned to answer in any way but a lame echo.

"Yeah, of course, look at you," she said with a slight chuckle. "You're gorgeous, and your personality is the best, we think alike, and you're a great father to our son, what more could any girl want? The mere fact that you want me, that you really _want_ me, it just puts it all over the top. I've been stupid to reject you…so please don't reject me…"

"This is all so surreal," Chris said, running his hands through his hair. "I never expected this to happen…not like this…I mean, I just…I don't know what to say, I'm speechless, you've made me speechless."

"Is that a good thing?" she asked jokingly.

"I don't even know," he said with a laugh. "I just--"

"Mommy?" came a confused voice from the bedroom.

Stephanie turned to see Finnegan standing there, rubbing his eyes. His hair was sticking up in every which way and he looked tired. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was approaching 2:00 am. She didn't know how Finnegan had slept through the fighting, but only woke up at this moment. She smiled at him, though he didn't see it since he was just about asleep on his feet. She went over and kneeled in front of him.

"Hi there, Finny," she said softly as she fixed his hair.

"Mommy, what are you doing here?" he asked gently, looking at her through his sleepy blue eyes.

"Well, I got scared because of the storm and came to see Daddy since Daddy makes everything better," she told him.

"I was scared too," he said, nodding somberly. "But Daddy said that I could sleep with him."

"Yeah, Daddy said the same thing to me, but you were hogging the bed," she said, kissing the tip of his nose. Finnegan giggled and made a funny face to his mommy. "Why don't you go back inside the room and go back to sleep, it's very late for a little boy to be up."

"But I'm all alone in there and the booming is still scary," Finnegan protested. "I want to stay with you and Daddy."

"Okay, why don't you go lie down in Daddy's bed, and Daddy and I will be in there really soon so you don't have to be scared of the booming?" Stephanie told him. "Daddy and I are having a very serious discussion right now, but as soon as we're done, we'll be right in there with you, how does that sound?"

"Can I stay with you?" he asked pitifully. Stephanie pouted at him and he leaned forward to hug her neck. Stephanie lifted him up and let him rest himself against her, where he was starting to rapidly fall asleep against her shoulder, unaware that Chris was just staring at the two of them.

This was his family, he thought to himself as he stood there watching them interact. These were the two people in the world who loved him the most. It was a nice feeling, and for the first time, Chris really thought that Finnegan had just been the glue that held them together. He thought his son a lot of things, but Finnegan was truly the point where he knew he wanted Stephanie forever. He loved her, and he loved being with her, and he loved every, single, solitary moment with her, and nothing was ever going to change that. Finnegan proved that, Finnegan had come along and proved to him that Stephanie was the only woman for him.

"So you said that this was all surreal," she continued, running her hands soothingly up and down Finnegan's back as she spoke. Her voice was infinitely softer now, so she wouldn't wake up their son. When she looked down and saw Finnegan was asleep, she went over to the couch and laid him down gently, which brought her much closer to where Chris was standing.

"It _is_ all surreal," he told her. He looked around. "I was never supposed to have an apartment or anything…"

"Chris, I love you, and I want a life with you, everything, I want everything with you," she told him.

Suddenly Chris burst into a huge smile and Stephanie had no idea what was going on, but Chris was rushing her. He took her into his arms and hugged her tightly. She hugged him back, and his hold on her just got tighter and tighter. He lifted her up and spun her around as she laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Okay, Chris, can't breathe, cannot breathe," she wheezed.

"Don't care, I got a yes! I got a yes!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Hey wait," she said as she managed to pull away, "I proposed."

"I proposed first," he told her, "So it's my proposal that counts."

"But I never said yes to that proposal, so mine is the one that counts."

"But I didn't say yes to _your _proposal, so mine is still out there," he told her.

"Mine is still out there."

"Stephanie, will you marry me?"

She shook her head, "No, you can't do that. You can't re-propose because you never answered my proposal, so my proposal is the one that's hanging out there."

"No, see, you never answered mine, you just told me that you needed more time, that's not a no, and it's not a yes, so if we go by the rule of not answering the question, you never answered my question, so technically, mine is still out there."

"Well I'm not saying yes until you say yes," she countered.

"Well, I'm not saying yes until _you_ say yes," Chris responded stubbornly. The two of them looked at each other, silently challenging the other one to break. Neither one was going to do it though as they stood there in each other's arms, arguing about whose proposal was still valid. "I'm not saying it."

"Well, I'm not saying it, I proposed."

"No, _I_ proposed, I even have a ring," he protested.

"Well I had the uterus that carried our son, so that trumps you and your ring."

"That was like four years ago, live in the now, I proposed. I have the ring, so just say yes already."

"Not going to happen!" Stephanie challenged loudly, which caused Finnegan to wake up again.

"Mommy, too loud," he whispered, waking up fully. He burrowed himself deeper into the cushions of the couch as his parents stood over him in each other's arms.

"Hey Finn?" Chris said.

"Daddy, I'm tired," Finnegan whined. He wasn't in the mood to be woken up for a third time, it was really late and he didn't understand why his parents kept waking him up. It was like he was being punished or something.

"I know kiddo, but I have to ask you an important question," Chris said. "Do you think that you can stay awake for just a minute so that I can ask you?"

"Okay," Finnegan mumbled.

"Do you think that Mommy and Daddy should get married?"

"Uh huh," he responded sleepily, not even knowing what he was saying at all. Chris laughed as he looked at Stephanie, who was just looking down at Finnegan. He kissed her cheek, causing her to look over at him. She smiled softly at him and he gave her a half-smile as he tried to fix some of her hair. She glanced at the sleeping child again before she turned back to Chris.

"I guess that's our answer," Chris whispered to her, so they wouldn't wake up Finnegan. "So should we take his advice?"

"Yeah, I think we should," she told him, and she was blushing now, and she didn't even know why. They had been together six years and he knew her inside-out, but he still could make her blush. He kissed her rosy cheeks, moving his lips down to cover hers. They kissed eagerly, having missed each other in their time apart. Stephanie moaned quietly into his mouth and wrapped herself tighter against him so her body was pressing into his.

She finally needed air and pulled away breathlessly, her eyes still closed. She took a sigh out of content and opened her eyes to see Chris holding up a ring about six inches from her face. She looked at it and noticed that it seemed to have colors in it. She looked up at Chris questioningly, never having seen a ring quite like this before.

"I know it looks like a crazy ring," he told her, "It's meant to be that way, it's um…well, it's our birthstones, and then the diamond is Finn's birthstone. I never got you a ring before, I figured that once you said yes we could go shopping for it so you could get what you wanted, but I was going to propose again and thought that I should have a ring this time, I thought that maybe…maybe the reason you kept saying no was because you didn't get the perfect proposal…now I realize I'm just an idiot who needs to watch how I phrase things."

Stephanie giggled and held her left hand up so he could slip the ring on her finger. "It's beautiful, I love it. Thank you." She kissed him again, then turned that into a tight hug. "I love you."

"I love you too," he told her, and he finally felt like he could have everything that he wanted with her. He hugged her tighter than tight, finally able to call this woman his fiancée. It was an incredible feeling knowing for sure that she was going to be his, that she hadn't, and never wanted to reject him. His thoughts were broken up as she let out a rather noisy yawn. "Okay, someone's had enough for one evening."

"Gonna take me to bed?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows playfully.

"Well, if you don't mind sharing with the two Irvine men?"

"Nah, I think I can handle it."

Chris kissed her one more time and went over to the couch, lifting up Finnegan gently. Finnegan instinctively snuggled into his daddy's warm body as he was carried into the bedroom. Stephanie followed behind her guys and watched as Chris laid Finnegan down on one side of the bed. He could've put Finnegan in his own bed, but if he woke up by himself, it wouldn't be pretty. Stephanie climbed in bed and Chris climbed in behind her, just like earlier, except this time, he was lying with the woman he was marrying, not his ex-girlfriend.

"Move over, I've got no room," Chris told her.

"_You've_ got no room? I'm the one stuck in the middle."

"Well, can't you move Finn over a little bit?"

"You try moving that log," Stephanie told him. "He's not going to budge."

"Well can't you move over a little bit more, my ass is hanging off the bed?"

"I can't move over anymore," Stephanie answered. "I'm literally like smushed in between you two, he's a bed hog."

"That's your fault."

"It is not my fault," she protested.

"It is too."

"Is not."

"He's your son, he's like your little clone, so if this is a trait of his, it has to be a trait of yours."

"He's your son too."

"So says you."

"Oh shut up," Stephanie told him good-naturedly.

"I would if you moved your ass over."

"I would if you shut your mouth."

Chris leaned over to kiss her again, "How's that for shutting my mouth?"

"Well, I like that way…"

"So I'm just going to have to sleep with half my body off the bed?"

"Looks that way," she said as Finnegan came over to cuddle with her. Chris wrapped his arm around Stephanie's waist, and she knew she wouldn't want to be anywhere but here, smashed together with her son and her…fiancé, riding out a thunderstorm in an entirely too small bed. This was her family, a family that she and Chris had both wanted, and wanted to see through to the finish.

"I love you, Steph."

"I love you too," she whispered back, letting him grab her hand. "Hey Chris?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for never giving up on proposing." Chris was silent for a few minutes and Stephanie thought he was asleep, but then she felt him kiss her shoulder and then lean his cheek against where he had just kissed her.

"Thank you for being there to hear every one."


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: This is the second to last chapter of this story, so it's almost over, although there is a sequel in the works as we speak. So leave me a little love in the form of a review, and hope you enjoy the chapter. :)

* * *

"You don't think we should be traditional?"

"Fuck tradition," Chris told her. "I had to spend over a month apart from you anyways, there's no way in hell I'm doing that for even one more night…until, you know, I have to go on the road or something, then I'll be forced to, but that's not what the point is right now. I don't believe in that superstition."

"That's very brave of you," she told him as she snuggled into his side.

"I'm a brave kind of guy."

"Oh really?" she teased.

"Hey, I stayed with you for six years and proposed to you a countless number of times and I never once left, I think that's pretty brave. I mean, the easy way out of that situation would've been to simply leave and find another girl, and it wouldn't have been hard, I'm a pretty damn good catch. But I stuck it out with you."

She laughed, "Well thank you for the concession. I'd hate for you to think _I_ was the easy way out."

"You? Easy? That'll never happen," Chris told her, turning his head to kiss her forehead. "So are you nervous about tomorrow? I mean, you were the one holding out on this whole marriage thing, and tomorrow is the big day. Are you nervous for it?"

"Nope, it's like you said," she told him. "We've pretty much been married for the past six years, so this is just a walk in the park compared to that. It's just one day where we happen to get more dressed up and put rings on each other's fingers."

"You make it sound so blasé."

"In a way, it is. It doesn't really change anything other than laying claim to one another. I mean, yes, you get to call me your wife, which is what I'm suspecting you've been wanting all along. You just wanted to be able to tell people I was your wife so that guys wouldn't look at me like hungry wolves anymore."

"Yeah, you got me," he said, sounding bummed out. "I was sick and tired of having guys see no ring on your finger and just assume you were free to hit on. I mean, seriously, you were never on the market and--"

"Well, I was before I met you," she pointed out.

He narrowed his eyes, "That was a long time ago, and a lot has changed since then. We were two…crazy people, I think is the delicate way to put that. But we've settled down in our parental stages. I like to think that Finn has settled us down."

"Settled us down to what? Slightly less crazy?" she kidded.

"Maybe in your case," he joked back as he pulled her closer. "Have I ever properly thanked you for him?"

"No, but I picked up on it sometime over the past four-and-a-half years," she told him. "I'm just sorry I didn't recognize that you really wanted me, we could've had this day a lot sooner. We could've been married a lot sooner."

"It's not a big deal," Chris said. "Nobody can say that we jumped into this commitment. And who cares if we weren't married before? Those small-minded idiots your parents call friends? I've never been impressed with them to begin with. We did things in our own time, and at our own pace. If it wasn't meant to be before, so be it, it's meant to be now and we should just embrace that."

"I love when you get all deep," she said, leaning up to kiss him. "You are just so adorable when you get all angry like this."

Chris let her kiss him as she settled her body slightly on top of his. "Mmm, do you think we should be doing this the night before our wedding? Shouldn't we be waiting it out until tomorrow night?"

"The only way I'm stopping is if Finny comes in here right now and considering he's all nice and settled in his hockey bed, and there are no monsters to be heard of, and he's all exhausted from the rehearsal dinner and everyone coming to visit, I don't think I'm going to be interrupted."

"Oh, so that's what you think?"

"It's what I think," she confirmed as she moved over so she was now fully on top of him. "Besides, it's my last night as an unmarried woman, I've got to take advantage of sleeping with a hot guy while I can."

"Come here you," Chris growled as he kissed her deeper, letting her settle against his body. He didn't care about much this evening as he was getting married the next day. He was getting married the next day, it still didn't fully register in his head, but it was really happening. Tomorrow Stephanie was going to be his wife, and he couldn't be happier.

Their engagement had been short; a month and a half to plan a wedding, but it was enough time. Neither one of them had wanted to wait too long; they had been waiting long enough already. They didn't need any more time, they didn't need some phony-baloney wedding classes, or anything like that to make sure they were compatible and that marriage was for them, they were practically married as it was, they just needed to make it official.

It wasn't going to be an opulent affair, but it was definitely going to be upscale, her parents wouldn't have it any other way. It was going to be on an estate they had rented out for both the wedding and the reception. It wasn't going to be fancy, but fancy enough to garner attention from the rich, Connecticut upper-crust. Stephanie and Chris couldn't care less about that, it wasn't about impressing people; it was simply about the two of them and Finnegan. They were the only three that mattered, Finnegan most of all. It was probably the biggest day for him.

When Chris awoke the next morning, he found that Stephanie was not in bed, and when he sat up, it appeared that she wasn't in the room. He went back to lying down for a minute, taking in the day at hand. He heard a crunching noise and reached behind his head to find a now slightly crumpled up note under his head. He held it up in front of his face to read it.

_Unlike some people who can just throw on a tux, I have a lot of work to do to get ready for today. Hope I didn't wear you out too much last night, I'd hate for you to be so exhausted today that you didn't show up for our wedding. But I know that I've worn you out in the past, remember the first time we slept together? I don't think I've ever seen you sleep as much as you did the next morning, and you told me you'd never had a match that had worked you quite so hard. Well, when I say I'm good, I'm good_.

_Anyways, I got up early this morning because I've got things to do before you shackle me to your ankle later today. So I guess I'll see you at the end of the aisle? Maybe, if you decide to show up. Word of warning though, if you do leave me at the altar, kiss Finny goodbye…just kidding. Speaking of Finny, he's your responsibility for the day and make sure that he eats something right before the wedding so he doesn't get hungry right in the middle of it, and a nap might be good, just in case. I don't know how long the reception is going to be tonight, but you know how he likes to be tucked in and I don't see how we're going to do that if we're at a reception, so to cut down on the crankiness, I think that a nap would be good. So let him take a nap this afternoon, and then maybe a yogurt to tide him over. You know what to do, but I'm just letting you know…I'm rambling right? I guess I am just a little nervous. Not to marry you, don't think you can hold this over my head as I sit here writing to you, but just that everything will go as planned…whatever, who gives a shit as long as I end up married to you in the end. If the ice sculptures melt, I don't really give a damn. Anyways, love you, and I'll see you later._

_Stephanie soon-to-be Irvine, but who'll always be a McMahon_

Chris laughed at her rambling note as he laid it back down on the bed and got up. It was time to start his day. He pulled on some boxers and headed downstairs. He heard voices in the kitchen and walked in to see his dad eating breakfast with Finnegan and he smiled and went straight for the coffee pot, pouring himself a steaming cup of coffee.

"Well good morning," Ted said. "Sleep well?"

"Sorry I'm up so late."

"Yes, Stephanie was up and out the door hours ago," Ted said, glancing at the clock. "And Finn here has been waiting for you to get up, haven't you, Finn?"

"We're getting married today, Daddy," Finn said matter-of-factly as he crunched on his toast. "We're going to marry Mommy."

"Yeah, we are," he said, walking over to the table and kissing his son's head before sitting down. "Are you excited to see me marry Mommy?"

"Mommy said I can have all the cake I want!" Finnegan exclaimed.

"Oh, so Mommy's master plan is to get you so hopped up on sugar that you keep Grandpa up all night, that's a great plan," Chris laughed, but Finnegan frowned a little bit. "What's up Finn?"

"Mommy said that I have to spend the night with Grandpa, why?"

"Why not?"

"Where are you and Mommy going?" he asked.

"Mommy and I are going to a hotel and then tomorrow we're going to Hawaii."

"I'm going too?" he asked with wide eyes.

"Do you really think we could go anywhere without you? Aren't you part of this family?" he asked.

"I am! I am!" he told him.

"Of course you're going with us to Hawaii," Chris said, "We just wouldn't have any fun without you."

Instead of a traditional honeymoon, Chris and Stephanie just decided to take a week off and go on a family vacation. They didn't need a honeymoon; they'd had one of those the entire first year they were together, that was just a year-long honeymoon of spontaneity and great sex. This time around, Stephanie really didn't want to leave Finnegan for a week, not because she didn't trust anyone to watch him, but because she couldn't bear to spend a week apart from him; it was just too long for her. So he was going to get shipped off to Hawaii with his parents. They could still have fun while he was asleep, but when he was awake, neither Stephanie nor Chris would rather be anywhere else but with their son.

"Wow," Finnegan said. "Marrying is fun!"

"That's what I've been trying to tell Mommy for years," Chris joked around. "So are you ready to get ready for the wedding later?"

"Uh huh."

"Good, I wouldn't want you to not be ready because it's not going to wait for you, Finnegan Irvine," he said, pretending to be stern. "Thanks for watching him tonight, Dad."

"It's the least I can do, my son is getting married, it's not everyday that happens," Ted told him. "And it's about damn time the two of you got married, I think everyone is going to be on their best behavior today. It took the both of you six damn years to get here. I've thought of Stephanie as my daughter for the past several years and I'm finally glad I can call her that."

"I just wish Mom could've been here," Chris said wistfully.

"She will be, don't worry…now let's get going cause we all have a wedding to get to."

Later that day, Stephanie was pacing back and forth in the room she had been allocated to wait in before the wedding. It was a lovely room, decorated in furniture from the 1930's, but it wasn't all that comforting at the moment. She didn't want anything to go wrong, that's all she wanted; she didn't want anything to go wrong. She looked at herself in the mirror for the fiftieth time it seemed. Yup, not a hair out of place.

She heard a rustling sound and saw a note slipped under the door. She went over and picked it up, recognizing the writing immediately. She laughed at what he was doing, but she went and sat on the bed anyways, carefully of course, she didn't want to wrinkle her dress in any way. She looked down at the note.

_Since today seems to be a day of giving notes like we're in high school, here's my contribution. I made sure that Finn took a nap and had a snack before we got here. He's really excited to go to Hawaii, I think we're going to have to get married every year to appease him. I'm not sure he gets that this is a one-time thing…or at least let's hope it's a one time thing because I'm not giving you up, and if you want to get away from me, well, you'll have to pry your ankle from my cold, dead hands…aren't I the romantic?_

_Anyways, I'll see you at the end of the aisle like you said. I'll be the one that's in the tux, please don't mistake me for Rocky, I don't want to cause an incident. In case you've forgotten, I'm the blond guy. I'd say I look like the little kid who is chomping at the bit to come see you, but we both know he barely looks like my son. If you have a last minute paternity confession to make, now would be the time. See you in a little bit, Steph, don't change your mind between now and then…just don't think really hard about who you're marrying._

_Chris born as an Irvine and will never be a McMahon (thank God!)_

Stephanie laughed as she reread the note one more time. She loved that crazy man. She was so stupid to think that he was ever just with her because of Finnegan. If she had just opened her eyes numerous times, she would've seen the truth a lot sooner. But then, in a way, she was glad they had waited. She was glad they hadn't rushed into marriage after Finnegan was born. Waiting until now had given them that settled feeling, a feeling that made this day a lot easier.

"Ms. McMahon we're starting in twenty minutes."

"Okay, thanks, I'll be down in a second."

Stephanie checked her makeup and her hair one more time, smoothing out the skirt of her dress as she left her room. She walked down the hallway and down to the waiting area right outside where she needed to walk. There was another part of the house where Chris was waiting, but she hadn't seen him yet. Trish, her college friend, Theresa, and her mother were waiting for her there. From behind her mother, she saw a little spot of black and then saw Finnegan come out from around her mother.

She knelt down as he ran over to her. "Wow, look at you, stylin' and profilin', Finny."

"Mommy, you look pretty," Finnegan said in awe of how his mommy looked.

"Well your opinion is pretty much the only one I trust, so thank you," she said, kissing his cheek. "Are you ready?" Finnegan nodded enthusiastically. "Great, is everyone else ready?"

They all nodded and she stood up as Finnegan stayed by her side, a little daunted by all the excitement going on around him. He didn't really understand all the hub-bub that went into this whole wedding business. All he knew was that they were getting dressed up and his Mommy and Daddy were getting married, whatever that really meant. He was getting cake! All the cake he wanted!

"You look beautiful, sweetie," Linda said, coming over to her. "I just want you to know that I'm very happy that you're getting married, and not because of Finn, but because you want to. I know that I've been a little critical of how you've decided to live your life before now, regarding marriage and getting pregnant and having Finn…but…"

"I got it, Mom," Stephanie said. "And you haven't been critical in the slightest. You've been great, now go take a seat so that we can get this whole thing going."

"I'm going, I'm going," Linda said with a laugh.

"Okay people, we are ready to go," one of the wedding planner's assistants said as she walked back to where they were standing.

"Finny, baby, where's your pillow with the rings?" Stephanie asked. Finnegan pointed to a table with a pillow sitting atop it. "Why don't you go get it, okay? And stand over there for instructions."

Finnegan nodded and went over to the table, grabbing the pillow and holding it in his hands obediently, like he had practiced last night. Of course, now he could see all the people that were watching his mommy's friend and Trish walk down the aisle and it looked a little overwhelming. There were a lot of people there, and sometimes Finnegan got shy around people he didn't know and a lot of them looked like people he didn't know.

"Okay little boy, come on, let's go," some strange lady he had never seen before said. He shook his head and she repeated, hissing nastily, "You need to go, you're going to hold everything up, little boy, and we're on a tight schedule."

"Hey, excuse me, did you just snap at him?" Stephanie said, coming over. Finnegan, who was now scared of this really mean lady, hid in his mother's skirts, clinging to her leg. He knew what his mother was going to do now. Stephanie was tough and Finnegan knew that she could get really mean if she so desired.

"He needs to go, he's next," she said.

"This is my son, and you can't talk to him like that, I'll decide when he goes out," Stephanie said, her eyes ablaze. "You are dismissed and learn how to talk around kids. If he looks terrified, you don't send him out there, Jesus."

The lady walked off, hoping that Stephanie didn't tell her boss, but Stephanie was busy kneeling in front of Finnegan. His lips were pursed as he clutched his little pillow. "Hey there Finny, what's wrong?"

"There's lot of people, Mommy," he explained to her. "I don't want to go out there. I want to stay with you…please?"

"Sweetie, your job is to be the ring bearer, that means you get to go all by yourself and walk out there and show off, don't you want to show off?"

"No." Stephanie laughed silently at that. Maybe Finnegan had been switched at birth because both she and Chris loved to show off. In fact, you could describe them as show-offs. But even the most outgoing person could be shy at times. And Finnegan was only four and he wasn't exactly used to the spotlight.

Out at the end of the aisle, Chris was licking his lips. Finnegan was supposed to be coming out and then Stephanie. Trish had already walked down the aisle and now they were just waiting as everyone had their eyes on the doors at the other end of the aisle. Chris wrung his hands a little bit, wondering what was going on. Surely Stephanie and Finnegan hadn't made a run for it. He hummed a little to himself as Rocky leaned over.

"She's coming."

"She's Stephanie, it's in her to be late," Shane added.

"What? Do I look nervous?" Chris asked.

"A little," Rocky told him.

"Shut up, she's showing up," Chris told them. He just hoped it was soon. People were starting to murmur.

"So you don't want to go out there at all?" Stephanie asked her little boy.

"I want to stay with you, Mommy, I don't want to walk by myself," he told her.

"Well, you know what?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"Usually the bride walks by herself or with her daddy walking her down the aisle, but, I don't really like bending to convention, so you can walk with me, how does that sound?" she asked. Finnegan nodded, a smile coming over his face. "Okay, great."

"Are you going to hold the pillow, Mommy?" he asked.

"Do you think that you could hold it?" she asked.

"Okay," he said happily, glad that he would have his mommy by his side so he wouldn't have to look at all those people staring at him. "Are you going to hold anything, Mommy?"

She looked at her bouquet sitting on the ground. She picked it up and tossed it on the table. "Just your hand, baby, just your hand."

Suddenly, or at least finally, the doors opened across from Chris, and he expected Finnegan to come out with his pillow. What he wasn't expecting was to see Finnegan walking out with his pillow in one hand, and Stephanie in the other. The wedding march started and everyone stood as they watched Stephanie be accompanied down the aisle by her son. Chris was a little surprised, but figured that Finnegan didn't want to walk alone. Stephanie reached him and she smiled.

"He get scared?" Chris asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Hey."

"Hey."

"Hi Daddy," Finnegan whispered.

"Hey Finn," Chris whispered back as everyone sat down. Finnegan clung to Stephanie's skirt, but she didn't care, it was his wedding too and he could stand with her if he wanted. He was being quiet and not bothering anyone.

"Hello everyone," reverend said in front of them. "We're here today to celebrate a wonderful union that I've been told has been six years in the making between Chris and Stephanie, and their little boy, Finnegan. It's always a wonderful occasion when a family seals themselves as one. If anyone thinks that these two shouldn't be married, speak now or forever hold your piece."

When nobody spoke, he continued, "Well, Chris and Stephanie have elected to say their own vows, so Chris if you'd like to start?"

"Sure," he said. "I proposed to Stephanie like fifty times over the years, and when she finally said yes, I thought about just getting married the next day, why waste the time, but this is a whole lot nicer. Everything I could possibly say _to_ Stephanie I've said, everything I could've said _about_ Stephanie, I've already said. Steph, you're…the past six years have made me who I am, a better man than I ever could've hoped to be, and you've given me a son who I love, what more could I ask for? I've got it all, thanks to you. I love you."

"Stephanie?" the reverend continued.

"I've been stupid for a while, but I finally came to my senses," she laughed, causing Chris to laugh. "These past six years have been the best of times, and the worst of times. When I found out I was pregnant, I was scared out of my mind to tell you. I thought it would ruin everything, but it made everything somehow better. You've made me better, just like you said I do to you, but you know, it's probably Finny that makes us so great. We're totally flawed without him."

"That's the truth," Chris answered.

The reverend smiled, "I've also been informed that Finnegan would like to say some things."

Stephanie took the microphone that was on the stand in front of them and knelt down next to Finnegan. "Did you want to say anything, Finny?"

Finnegan wrapped one of his arms around his mommy's neck, looking into the microphone, said, "Mommy said I could have all the cake I want! And we're going to Hawaii tomorrow, and I got a new coloring book from Uncle Shane and mommy told me that my friend Richard could come and play when we get back from Hawaii and he has a big box of crayons, it's bigger than mine, and I colored the piggy blue because Sarah was using the pink because pigs are pink, but she wouldn't share."

Stephanie held in her laugh, "Do you want to say anything about Mommy and Daddy?"

"We watched Monsters Inc. last night!" Finnegan said excitedly. "And the monsters weren't scary in that movie, so monsters aren't scary, but Daddy still looked for them in my room, but they weren't there cause they hide. And I had pizza for dinner, it was real yummy, and Mommy said that Paul was a monst--"

"Okay, yeah, that's all for now, Finny," Stephanie said, kissing his cheek. "You can make a toast later okay?"

"Okay, Mommy, I love you," he said, hugging her.

"I love you too," she told him, hugging him back.

"I hope you guys have about two hours to spare later because I think that's how long his speech is going to be," Chris joked as Finnegan frowned up at him. "I'm sorry Finn, come here." Finnegan came over and hugged his daddy too. Finnegan stayed with Chris for now, leaning his head against his leg as he started to get a little sleepy, despite having taken a nap.

Chris and Stephanie exchanged rings, but in the end, that didn't really matter. Rings were just a symbol of something greater, something that had been around for years now. They didn't need the ceremony, or the rings, or the words, they already had everything they needed to have. As they walked back down the aisle, they weren't even holding hands. Finnegan was between them, beaming as brightly as his parents were, and that was what sealed them together, that little boy. The rings were nice and all, but the little boy, he was what mattered, and Chris realized that proposing wasn't everything, and Stephanie realized that a planned future was a little overrated.

If they had planned the future, there would be no Finnegan, and if there were no multiple proposals, Chris wouldn't feel this perfection as he swung Finnegan up into his arms as they got in the limo. Finnegan sat between his parents as they kissed over his head, and then after that, they kissed Finnegan's cheeks, making him scrunch his face up and stick his tongue out at the double assault. They had already been together for the long haul before this. It didn't change anything, not at all, they were a family before this, and they were a family after this. It mattered very little in the long run. Oh…except for one thing…

Stephanie was finally an Irvine.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: This is the last chapter of this particular story. Thank you for all the reviews for it, I really, really enjoyed writing it. I enjoyed writing it so much that there's a sequel on the way, although, it's not going to solely focus on Stephanie and Chris, which you'll learn after reading this chapter. So I hope that you enjoyed the story as well, so leave a review and tell me what you thought of it as a whole. :)

* * *

"Oh, come on in."

Shane could hear the television on in the background and what appeared to be music playing from upstairs. Stephanie, herself, looked harried, her hair pulled back messily and wearing a casual pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a cardigan over it. He stepped inside the house as she closed the door behind her.

"So you came over early?" Stephanie said. "Usually I would clean up the mad-house since you're not used to all of this, you're just used to your pristine house."

Shane laughed, "I was bored, thought I'd come over a little early and hang out with my nephew."

"Yeah, if you can find him, or catch him, if you do manage that, tell me how," Stephanie laughed. "I'm going to kill Mom and Dad for that wedding present for him."

"They were just being nice."

"Too nice," Stephanie said. "But they said that they didn't want Finny to get absolutely nothing at the wedding so they got him something that was alive so we couldn't possibly donate it."

Shane laughed at his sister's complaining. For their wedding, they had asked all the guests to buy presents that would be appropriate for Finnegan, and to get nothing for Chris and Stephanie. Finnegan got to keep one toy of his choosing, and the rest was donated to charity. Stephanie and Chris had far too many belongings to possibly expect people to get them gifts, and they thought being charitable was a good idea. They weren't a couple just starting out in life; they had already established a life a long time ago.

"Mom and Dad just want Finn to have something that he can enjoy…how is he enjoying it?"

Just as he was speaking, a puppy ran into Shane's line of vision and Finnegan was only a few steps behind it. Stephanie looked behind her as she heard Finnegan laughing and jerked her thumb at them. "That's how he's enjoying it, by running around everywhere with that dog. And when you have four acres of land, well, let's just say if I had any leftover baby weight from Finny, then it's sure as hell gone now."

Shane laughed. "So what's his name?"

"Funny story, you want to know what Finny's first suggestion was?"

"Sure."

"Vince, he wanted to name it after his grandpa, but I told him that his grandpa probably wouldn't like it. I suggested Simba, since his favorite movie is _The Lion King_, but he didn't want that, so he wanted to name him Crayon, so Chris shortened it to Cray, the dog's name is Cray."

"Cray, at least that's interesting," Shane said as he walked into the house.

"Finny!"

"Yes Mommy!" Finnegan's voice came from somewhere in the house.

"Uncle Shane is here!"

A few minutes later, Finnegan came running into the living room, Cray at his heels. He ran up to Shane, who kneeled down to receive his hug. Finnegan hugged him tightly. He hadn't seen his uncle Shane in over a week since they had just gotten back from Hawaii the previous week. Shane had missed the little kid while he had been way. Finnegan was pretty much the only kid that Shane liked, since he didn't have any of his own.

"Hey there, Finn, I like your dog."

"Mommy and Daddy said I could keep him," Finnegan said. "And he can travel with us, Mommy said, but that we have to be careful with him because he's little. He likes to eat a lot, and Daddy said that's because he's growing like me."

"Where is your daddy?"

"He's upstairs working on some music," Stephanie explained. "In case you couldn't hear, he's not recording or anything, just messing around and annoying me, like usual, I shouldn't be surprised."

"You've only been married for three weeks," Shane chuckled.

"Is that it? Feels like it's been years," Stephanie joked as Finnegan came over and hugged her leg. "What's wrong, Finny?"

"Can I watch a movie?"

"What movie?" she asked.

"Um…" he tapped his chin. "_Curious George_! I want to watch with Daddy."

"Well go upstairs and ask him," Stephanie said. She watched as Finnegan ran towards the stairs and started to climb them under Stephanie's watchful eye.

"So how's married life treating you, little sis?" Shane said as he went to sit down.

Stephanie picked up some random toys on the ground as she navigated her way to the couch. She dumped them into a toy box and came to sit with her brother. "Well, it's…no different than me and Chris before we were married."

"You're not wearing your rings," Shane noticed as he looked at her hand.

"No, it just feels weird, Chris hasn't really taken to wearing his either, it's just a personal choice. We didn't really need them anyways," she shrugged. "I don't know, it's different now, but it's the same, a whole lot of the same. I knew that I wanted to be with Chris since our first date. I don't know how the hell I knew, I just did. I didn't know our lives would be a comedy of errors, but, I knew."

"You know I'm happy for you."

"Of course I know," Stephanie told him. "You only tried to involve my son in your insane plots to get me back together with Chris. I mean, I know the whole date thing was your idea in the first place."

"Well, I wanted you to see what you were missing, not with the date, but with being with Chris, you know," Shane said. "And it worked because you didn't have a good time."

"Honestly, I did have a good time," she said, "but it's not the same as when I'm with Chris. I don't know, he just makes me feel really good, and now he's my husband, something he probably should've been a while ago."

"You actually had fun?" Shane asked incredulously.

"It was different," she answered. "I mean, I've been with Chris for six years, seven years is coming fast upon us, and I've been with him since I was like twenty-five years old, sometimes you do wonder what else is out there, but…now I don't wonder anymore."

"I was under the impression there would be a movie showing in here," Chris's voice piped in from the doorway, Finnegan riding piggyback. "Did we make it in time for the show?"

"Finny wants to watch _Curious George_," Stephanie said.

"Cool, I'm always up for a crazy little monkey and a man in a yellow hat," Chris said, dumping Finnegan on the couch. "Finn, you want popcorn?"

"Yes, please," Finnegan said politely.

"Okay," Chris said, grabbing the DVD from the shelf next to the television and sticking it in the DVD player. "I'll be right back."

"I better get started on dinner," Stephanie said, standing up as well. She followed Chris into the kitchen where he went into the pantry to get some popcorn while she started getting things from the fridge. A few minutes later, she felt Chris's arms wrap around her waist and she leaned back against his warm body. "Shouldn't you be making popcorn?"

"I am making popcorn," he said, kissing her neck.

"Stop, if you don't we're going to be eating dinner at 10 o'clock tonight," she said, trying to push him away with her butt as she tried to continue chopping things for dinner. Chris didn't let up though, only pulling himself tighter to her and she frowned. "Chris come on, my brother's in the next room. Our _son_ is in the next room."

"So what? You're my wife, and we're newlyweds, I'm allowed to act loopy around you."

"We're newlyweds?" she asked, twisting her head to look at him.

"Technically," he told her. "In the truth of the matter, I'd say we're way, way past the newlywed stage and right into old, married couple stage."

"If we're in old, married couple stage, can I tell you something, as your wife, who loves you and married you?"

"What's that?" he asked, kissing her jaw.

"Grow your hair out," she told him.

"What?"

"Please," she pouted as she begged. "I miss your long hair, I don't like this short hair and I know you resolved not to grow it out because you're getting older and it looks you know, too young for you or something, but can I let you in on a little secret…the hair was what drew me in, you were so sexy, and I wouldn't want to divorce you."

"Only for you would I grow my hair back," he said, turning her around so she was facing him. He kissed her as she dropped her knife down on the counter so she could hold onto Chris.

Shane was about to go into the kitchen when he saw his little sister making out with her husband. Now, he was really happy that his sister was happy, but he certainly didn't need to see how happy. His little sister was actually married now, it was strange, he had just gotten so used to Chris and Stephanie not being married and now they were, and it was like everything was different. His family was different, Stephanie was an Irvine, and Chris was legally part of his family, everything was changing so quickly, and sometimes he felt like he was left in the dust.

It was nothing more than a fleeting feeling really, and it never came often enough for him to really think about it. But ever since Stephanie's wedding, he couldn't help but think about how she had moved forward in her relationship, to the very pinnacle, and he was going nowhere because he had nobody. And he was satisfied with that, he was happy having his career and the success that came with that. He was definitely happy with what he had.

Shane sat down on the couch next to Finnegan who was watching intently the menu screen that was on the television, his new dog laying in the corner. Stephanie and Chris's house was a mess, but it was definitely lived in. Well, it was a mess to him at least. Finnegan looked to his Uncle Shane and gave a big sigh to get his attention, but it didn't work.

"Are you sad, Uncle Shane?" Finnegan asked.

"What? No, what made you think that?"

"I don't know, but if you want…Mommy can say the poem to you and that will make you feel better because when Mommy tells me the poem, it makes _me_ feel better," he told him.

"What poem?"

"The poem," Finnegan said, like Shane should know. Chris came in with the popcorn and threw a piece at Finny, whose eyes narrowed as he looked at Chris. "Daddy, don't do that!"

"What? I didn't do anything," Chris said, trying to act innocent, which only infuriated Finnegan even more. Chris sat down next to him though and even though he had been mad not a moment before, like any little kid, what was in the past, stayed there as he cuddled up to Chris's side and grabbed a handful of popcorn.

"Chris, what poem is Finn talking about?"

"Oh, I wrote him a poem, he likes it," Chris said dismissively as he grabbed the remote and turned on the movie.

"Daddy, daddy, are you watching?" Finnegan asked when he looked at Chris who, at the moment, wasn't watching the screen.

"I'm watching, I am," Chris said, turning his eyes back to the television in front of him as Finnegan kept glancing at him to make sure he was watching. Finnegan let his head fall against Chris's chest after a while though, and he quieted down as he became engrossed in the movie.

Shane watched the interaction between father and son and as much as Chris joked that Finnegan was Stephanie junior, Shane saw similarities between Chris and Finnegan. Sometimes he wondered what it was like to have kids. Finnegan was the only kid that he really interacted with, and if he had kids that turned out anything like his nephew, then he wouldn't mind having more than one of them. But still, he just didn't have the time for it.

What Shane didn't realize was that Chris and Stephanie didn't have the time for kids either. They were both super-busy and had a myriad of responsibilities. The thing that made the difference was they made the time for Finnegan. They made sure that he was the number one thing in their lives. If they didn't have him, they'd probably be on a plane to Milan or something, but no, Chris was sitting here watching _Curious George_ and Stephanie was in the kitchen making dinner since it was her night to cook (Chris had made a great chicken cacciatore the night before). They were happy with that too, they had no problems being there for their son, it was all about priorities. Shane just didn't know what he wanted yet.

But it's often the things we don't know we want…that we need the most.

THE END


End file.
